The Rose Garden Gate
by jayelbird
Summary: A new Charmed adventure: An evil sorceress has locked the gate's to Heaven, trapping Leo behind the pearly gates. The rest of the sisters must find a way to defeat the sorceress
1. Chapter 1

What's Happened So Far:

The mansion stands, its inhabitants meeting inside. Piper stands in the central den, pacing, as Leo orbs down from the Heavenly realm. Piper immediately stands to face him as his form distills.

"Leo," Piper asks anxiously, "what happened up there?"

"They aren't sure what's coming, but they want to be prepared, he replys, holding her against him. "Someone is holding captive a white lighter. He has managed to slip by her spells and send a few very samll messages, which basically hint to the fact that she is studying him to determine how to gain entrance into the Elder's Realm and unleash some kind of havoc. They expect another attack."

Pheobe trounces down the stairs, just picking up the last of the converstation. "And they want all their forces mounted upstairs?"

"Yes," replies Leo, shortly, his face stern with seriousness.

Piper holds him closer. "Do you have to go? They lost so many the last time this happened. I am afraid I won't see you again."

"Don't say that, please. We hope to be prepared enough that it won't happen again."

A dark lair, the walls littered with roses. A chinese paper wall inked with rose stencils is laid out against one of the walls. A young man is chained to the wall opposite it, his feet dangling off the floor. Chains encircle his chest and his arms are held parallel to the floor by cuffs locked on to his wrists. A rose bud blooms on the side of his neck, its stem wraps tightly around his throat. The thorns of the rose dig into his flesh, lines of blood drip down the sides of his neck. His head drops, and he looks exhausted, tortured.

A woman steps out from behind the paper screen. She wears a bright green gown, her auburn hair flowing down the back of the full gown. Two large pockets, both empty, are swen into the sides of her dress, at the height where her hands can easily reach into them. The front of the gown is dyed red, and buttoned up. She holds in her hand a long stemmed rose, and stops to smell it, peering over it at the hanging man. She advances toward him and gently moves the soft rose bud across his chest.

"Yes, my dear," she says, a fine ring lifting her voice to a high and sinister pitch, "I think I just about have completed my work here."

The man's breath is belaboured, but he manages his few lines in his dark hour. "They know you are coming. They are prepared against your attacks. Your lessons on how to kill us will not avail you, enchantress."

"Kill them," she pulls the rose to her bosom, her face displaying feigned affrontery. "Kill them? I don't want to kill them. Only trap them." She reaches forward, and clasps the rose bud on his neck. "Time to go."

The sky, filled with clouds. Blue orbs rushes through them, moving forward. Two tiny red orbs hover next to it, one trailing along and one smaller attached to the blue lights. As they go forward, more orbs head the same direction, but few enough that they are clearly the end of a procession. Giant golden gates come into view behind a set of clouds. Behind ringing sounds, a womans' voice, the rose enchantress's echoes. "Here's where I get off, big boy. And you keep on going." The larger of the orbs beings to lose its momentum and drift down into the cloud immediately before the big gate. From where the orb lands, the wispy figure of the enchantress rises out of the clouds.

"The big pearly gates, eh? How cliche." She glides towards the gates and slides the long stemmed rose in the handles. Leaning down to it, she kisses it and then blows a word onto its bloom. "Grow." As she steps back, the effects are nearly instant. The rose's stem begins to grow in every direction like a creeping vine climbing the gates, enmeshing them. Turning them into a giant wall of green thorny vine. The single rose remain situated in the middle of the garden gate.

The enchantress turns from garden gate, a smirk playing on her rosy red lips. "That should keep them there and out of our buisness back on Earth," she says, satisified. "And if the rose I send in on that white lighter does its job from the other side, then no one should be able to--"

THUD

The enchantress spins, her face now a mask of horror. "No!" she cries. "They should even be able to touch from the other side. The thorns there should prevent them from touching it. They can't be banging on the door!"

She steps up to the garden gate and puts her ears to the door. The thorns move and the vines thin, but they do not fully part, even for her. A faint whisper and the ringing of bells can be heard. "The power of three shall set us free, the power of three shall set us free."

"No!" She screams, reaching into her pocket, pulling out another rose, her hands deftly gliding acorss its shorter stem, working it into a magic form. "Where is my rose!" She throws the rose into the air and it drifts for a moment before taking off like a shot.

Blue lights descend, flitting into the Haliwell manor. Piper runs toward them. "Leo!" she cries. But when the lights form into their human figure, it is not Leo, but the tatered form of the trapped white lighter, his hair now much more gray and thinning, his face a form twenty years older than what he wore in the enchantress's lair..

"Help them, Charmed Ones," his strained voice nearly a whisper, sounding like rocks dragged along gravel. "You must help them"

"Help who? Where is Leo? What is going on up there?" Piper asks in a nervous litany of questions, as Paige and Pheobe enter the room. Paige steps toward the clearly injured white lighter to offer healing.

"No," he says to Paige, his voice belaboured, "I have come to die. To tell you what you must do. To stop her. She has trapped them inside the Elders Realm."

"Trapped who?" asks Piper, her voice rising to a pitch of panic. "The Elder's Realm? Leo is up there!" She collapses to her knees beside the man and Paige, and looks straight at him. "Who did it?"

The man raises his head and looks out the large parlor windows. "The enchantress, Rosaline." His hand rises up, a finger pointing at the window, as wind clearly rustles through the grass and the boughs of the tree sway. "And she has followed me." The glass of the windows shatters, and a rose dives through them. Its stem barely grazes the man's outstretched finger, and the rose jabs into the wood parlor floor, twanging like an arrow shot from a bow. The enchantress hovers in through the broken glass window behind them, her movements more graceful as her eyes fix on the man on the floor, his finger locked in its point towards her.

"How dare you defy me!" She screams, lifting a rose, pointing it at the man. The rose around his neck lifts him off the ground as she raises the rose in her hand higher until his feet dangle off the floor. He twists and turns in the air, his hands clawing febely at the rose. Her rose wand blooms open to an even wider bloom, and a small spark of magic leaps out of the fully open bud and dives into the rose necklace. It begins to gorw quickly, tightening around his neck and sending other shoots of vie spraying acorss his boy, wrapping around his chest and arms until he is again held in their htorny grasp spread as if on a roman cross.

"How did you manage to defy me! I and my forebears have spent centuries perfecting our manipulation and control of your powers! How do you dare?" She waves her rod around in slow small circle and the tendrils tighten, their thorns cutting flesh.

"You powers could only effect me living." He closes his eyes, and years seem to wrap around him. Wrinkles grow at the edge of he eyes, and a widow's peak at the front of his head grows more pronounced. His words echo in his throat, haunting: "Dead, I am beyond your reach." He falls through the rose's tendrils, and they retract, reforming into the solitary necklace. With a thud, he lands on the floor, barely moving. Rosaline's eyes widen in shock and she raises her rose wand, poised to to inflict further pain on the weakened man.

The bud of her wand explodes in a shower of sparks. Piper's hand are raised, spell casting explosions toward the enchantress. "Enough," she screams, as the enchantress screams at almost the same moment, "Witch!"

The enchantress reaches into her pocket and pulls out another short rose, its bud cystal white and throws it toward the assembled sisters. Piper flashes her hands at Rosaline again, but she draws her now truncated wand in front of her and another half of its stem explodes. The white rose lands at Pipers feet and a shield grows around the witches, locking them in. Paige attempts to orb out, but is repelled by the shield.

"Witches," Rosaline speaks to them, "my battle is not with you. For the moment. Only with the white lighter laying at your feet," she says, pointing at him with the stump of her wand. Paige raises her hand and calls for the rose, bu to no effect. "I wouldn't even bother," Rosaline taunts. "I doubt even the Charmed Ones could break this shield."

"Well, then," says Piper, her voice brass, "yo've messed with the wrong witches." She grabs Pheobe's and Paige's hand and begins chanting. "The power of three shall set us free. The power of three shall set us free." Her sisters begin chanting by the second time trhough, and cracks start to form in the shield's bubble.

The Enchantress only smiles. "This is even better," she says, and pulls out of her pockets a dead and blackened rose and holds it in the air above her. The cracks in the bubble start to let off light as the widen, but in a moment those beams of light curl and shine on the dead rose. As the light surrounds it, its age starts to reverse and its color returns.

"No! Destroy the roses!" shouts the white lighter, but his voice is too small to be heard over the sisters chant. He raches out, his hand trembling with effort, and brings down a fist on the white rose laying on the floor, his hand piercing the shield with no resistance. the shield winks once and then dissappears. The sisters, surprised, stop chanting and the man yells his warning again. "Destroy the roses!" Piper flashes her hands again and the dead rose bursts, light beams escaping from it and fleeing back towards the sister, diving into their bodies.

"We must flee," shouts the man, his hand reaching for Pheobe's leg, the closest one to him, and he orbs away. Rosaline reaches into her pocket, withdrawing another white rose. Paige grabs Piper and also orbs away as the Enchantress throws the rose at empty air.

A dilapitated flat. The man is laying on the bed, his face further aged. His white hair had grown longer in the back and is missing from the top of his head. A longer white beard has sprouted from his chin and the skin around his eyes seems weathered. His voice is quiet, but Pheobe sits on the bed side, clutching the hand of a man appearing to be her grandfather, hears him perfectly. Her eyes tear.

"Thank you for your understanding. I don't want you to be hurt in my leaving as much as you were in my coming. But I am leaving. It is why I came. I must impart a few last pieces of advice. Nay, commands, if you wish to release those trapped in Heaven by Rosaline. Split up, do not return to the Manor and do not stay together, all three of you. She is waiting to trap you and capture your power so that her spell can be complete. You must each look for others who can help you discover how to reach heaven and to break the spell. I can do nothing now. I am not effected by her magic and I cannot effect her magic."

His hand falls from Pheobe's and it grows thin on top of the bed. He ages further, his face growing hollow. "But in my death, I leave you with a gift. Take the artifacts I leave. They will protect you from Rosaline's magic while you wear them, leave you immune to it. And remember, her roses are her source of power. She tied herself to them long ago. Save the Heavenly Forces. May your husband be saved." His words drift off and he loses corporeal form and substance, his flesh reverting to dust before the sisters eyes. Paige cries and Pheobe snifs. Piper is beyond emotion, her face a composed mask, refusing to feel the hurt while she still worries for her husband. A wind blows through the room, flipping the empty sheet off the bed and blowing away the pile of dust. Revealed, three gold necklaces lay on the bed. Each has a small procelain rose attached to it as a pendant, a tiny ruby shining in the center of the porcelain bud.

An alley way behind Piper's club. Piper speaks. "We will meet back her in two weeks. Just keep looking for whatever you can find to help us. Anything."

"And what exactly are we supposed to find, just looking around blindly like this," asks Paige, her tone frustrated.

"I don't know," yells Piper. "I don't know," she says more quietly, her voice cracking. Her head drops, and tears line her voice. "I just don't know." Pheobe moves to comfort her and wraps Piper in her arms.

A tall tower overlooking the San Fransico seafront. Rosaline overlooks the city, staring out. "How do I find the Power of Three?" She taps a red painted fingernail to her lips.

A coarse and low voice sounds from behind and she spins to face it. "Yes, Enchantress? You have asked for my services?" A tall man in a long trenchcoat faces her. His smile sneers, his eyes squint closed, burdened by his protruduing eyebrows and forehead on the left side of his face. His face is pale, but unmarked by hair or scar. It doesn't radiant wisdom, but it does protray cruelty.

"Yes, demon." She approaches him, a large bulb in her hand. "I want to you to hunt the Charmed Ones. When you catch a scent of them, plant this, and its magic will hunt them and infect them. I want them found and captured. If that proves too difficult, kill them."

Paige stands in a small hospital room. Quiet except for the whir of a respirator. On the bed lays a body, a small girl. Paige reaches her hand out to her, and lets her healing magic flow through her hand into the body of the girl. The healing glow emanates from her hand, and she moves her hand over the body, working up from the stomach to the shoulder and back down to the arm. She stops as her hand passes over a gash in the girls arm. "The sickness starts here," she says, and the glow increases, but stops suddenly. "This magic was aimed at me, but it missed. And now I can't stop it," She says, her tone mournful. "The magic is blocked from me and I from it." With her other hand, she reaches to the pendant hanging around her neck, when the door to the room bangs open.

"Stop," shouts an older man, dressed in a white lab coat, and he strides to paige and grabs her outstretched hand. "What are you doing?"

Paige looks startled and pulls her hand away from the doctor. "I'm just a visitor. I just wanted to see her."

"No, you're not," replies the man, grabbing her hand again. "You're a white lighter."

A doctor's clinic. In one of the rooms lay another body, similar laid across a table, this time a worker, his frame large and bulky. Paige sits in one of the chairs and the doctor stands in the center of the room. The man stands next to the body, analyzing the charts hanging next to the bed on the wall. "When you've been around as long as I have, you'll see a few things, if you're keeping your eyes open. But this was something I'd not have wanted to see. And what are you proposing exactly to fix this magic?"

Paige looks at his back. "Fix it? I don't know about fixing it. Saving these people is a start at it though. I just want to heal them. I need you to watch out for what happens next. I just need to take off this protective amulet to effect the witches magic."

"But won't that also allow the magic to just flow into you, its original target?"

"I hope I can heal it before that happens."

Piper walks across a busy sidewalk. Her hands are covered in worn gloves, and a ski hat covers her head, her hair tucked into it. Activity moves around her. She passes by an appliance stores. Televisions placed in the window project an interview on the news station which catch her eye. The screen labels by the picture in the corner "Disease Ridden Plants Exterminated" and "Dr. Kluger" in the banner running across the bottom of the screen.

"Too many people were infected by the plaugue the first time the city attempted to have the bush cut down. All the worker's who attempted it ended up at my clinic. So we just had the area cordoned off."

The interviewer's voice speaks to Dr. Kluger. "And what is the prognosis for the already infected victims?"

"Almost all of them have already gotten well enough to leave the clinic. They just all of a sudden got up and were feeling fine, like they'd never been infected. I think it's mostly due to the high hopes our staff had in their recovery. Keeping the patient's morale up is always helpful. There was this one person, a helper of mine, with this pendant and she used it to keep everyone's hopes us. For recovery, that is. It was such a succeful endeavor, almost like this pendant was one of the charmed ones." Dr. Kluger emphasizes the end of his sentence, and Piper raises her eyes over the lip of her cup, and her eyes widen when she recognzies the pendant as matching the one hanging around her neck. "But now that attendant herself has gotten very sick with the plague. She really wishes what one of her sisters would come see her."

A cup of coffee drops ot the ground, its contents splashing over the sidewalk. A woman's voice shouts for a taxi. The interviewer asks what can be done to help the attendant. Dr Kluger answers. "I don't know. It may be too late for anything but prayers."


	2. Chapter 2

"Yes, ma'am," the secretary said from behind the counter of the clinic. "Could you please repeat your name again?"

"My name is Piper. I am here to see my sister, the doctor said for me to come right--"

"Yes, ma'am. The doctor will be right with you. And your last name?"

"I'd rather not give it." The secretary types a note into her computer. "Dr. Kluger knows my sister, she is a patient here. Please, I really need to speak with the doctor immediately. Is he here?"

"I'm sorry. What is your sister registered as here?"

"Ummm, Paige. Her name is Paige."

The secretary types on the computer, staring intently at it before looking back at the disheveled woman standing in front of her. Piper face betrays her anxiety, and her hair has started to come out in wisps from under her ski cap. Her eyes are intent on the secretary, viewing her as a last offensive preventing her from accessing the infirm Paige. "I am sorry. I don't have that name registered as one of the patients of our clinic. Is she a new patient?"

"Look, I know she is here. I just need to speak with Dr. Kluger immediately about her, so if you could please just page Dr. Kluger and tell him that I am here, that would be really great. Ok?" Her request began with only a hint of annoyance, but by the end, the annoyance has been brought out in full force.

"I am sorry, but you will have to sit down and wait. He will be avaiable soon."

"Look, I need to speak with him now," Piper begins, moving around the desk to the open door into the back of the clinic, but the secretary jumps up to block her way. With a cry of frustration, Piper raises her hands and casts a spell on the clinic, freezing time for everyone around her, and she quickly sidesteps the secretary and heads into the back of the clinic.

The clinic is large, so Piper is forced to walk aimlessely down the hallway before she notices a sign written on a blank piece of paper with a felt marker reading Plague Quarantine with an arrow sketched beneath it pointing down the hallway. Piper follows the arrow and dodges around a patient wearing jeans and a plaid shirt walking toward the exit. His lips are frozen in a whistle, and he looks happy to be leaving. Piper moves past him quickly without even noticing and finds another room labeled Quarantine. She cautiously looks through the thick glass window in the door and sees two rows of beds lining the walls on each side of the room. All of the beds are empty, except one, the one closest to the door. The window only allows her to just see the tip of the bed, enough to know that there is a body in the bed, but she cannot see anymore than that. She tries the handle and it turns, allowing her into the room.

The door opens and Piper scurries around it quickly. The bed she now sees was not the last one in the row, but the angle of her view from the door prevented her from seeing the bed on the far corner. The door starts to close, but Paige's body on the bed catches her eye, and she rushes over to Paige's limp form while the door closes with a furious hiss. Silently, she collapses onto her knees besides the bed and gently holds Paige's arm. She buries her face in the bedsheets and heaves dry silent tears into the covers, her fingers absently stroking the numb arm. She can feel the magic surrpunding Paige, the evil Enchantresses magic. Its still searching for others and still consuming, but Piper ignores and just cries.The room is quiet except for a scratching pen on paper. After a brief moment, Piper lifts her head up, her cheeks wet with surpsiing tears and she slowly reaches towards her face to brush the few wisps of hair from her face to thier proper positions. The scratching pen stops.

"What are you doing?" shouts a man's voice from behind her and a strong hand clamps down on her outstretched hand and yanks her away from the bed. The hand pulls her up, and Piper is forced to release Paige's arm and instead grapples with her attacker's hand, clenching tightly onto the man's arm as it pulls her up of the ground. The man's arm is deadly strong and he yanks her up from behind and lifts her up until she is standing and then pushes her away from the bed with a forceful shove. Piper's arm drops free as she stumbles away from the bed toward a desk in the corner of the room which she hadn't been able to see from the window in the door. Piper regains her balance and spins to face her attacker, almost raising her hands before recognizing him as Dr. Kluger. Dr. Kluger though doesn't recognize her.

"Who are you? What were you doing? This is a quarantine area, and you could have already been infected. You need to leave now."

Piper's only reply is take out her pendant and let it hang outside of her shirt on her chest. She looks up, expecting to see Dr. Kluger's shocked expression, but is surprised to see one of disgust instead. "Witches," he snorts. "So, I assume you thought you knew what you were doing too." He advances towards her, and throws his arm back to point at Paige's prone form. "Well so did she, and here she is now." He nearly yells. "And she's dying!"

Piper's eyes start to tear over, and she yells back. "What do you think, I don't care? She my gad damn sister, lying in that bed, dying because of some god damn enchantress who's taken my husband away from me. And now you think I don't care about my sister?!"

Dr. Kluger's eyes register the shot, and his face softens, appearing almost fatherly. He reaches out a hand, gently this time, and pats Piper's shoulder. "Shh, I'm sorry I said that. I know you're her sister, but I feel almost like a father to her now. I do for most of my patients, and even more so for my staff." He smiles a bit, a small sound, a cross between a short laugh and a sigh, moves in his throat. "And she happens to be both in this unique cirumstance." He looks into her eye as she sniffles. "And if I feel like her father, then I guess that makes me feel like your father too. So you can forgive your father, couldn't you?" He smiles fully at her, and she can't help but feel more composed before this older figure. She can almost remember sitting on her grandfather's knee in his presence, and it relaxes her.

He breaks the contact and moves to look through the window of the door. "I am surprised," he says, "that no one else has come, with all the shouting I've been doing."

"Oh, that?" Piper says. "I've stopped time for everyone else. The secretary wouldn't let me come see Paige or you, and--"

"What?" he says, turning to her. Now his eyes are wide with shock, but she doesn't feel triumphant for that. "I thought you sisters were trying to stay hidden. Stopping time in a whole office couldn't be called staying hidden."

"But, I--"

"Come on, we've got to fix this, quick." With alacrity belying his age, he moves around to her side, reaches an arm behind her back and guides her through the door, down the hallway and back to the waiting room.

"Get back into the position you were when you stopped time, and undo it. Give me a second to get back outside through the back entrance. And keep with your story. I'll be out soon. I was 'expecting you'. Now hurry." He ushers her around the frozen secretary, and quickly turns back, taking off down the hallway. Piper moves in front of the secretary, brings her hands up, and pulls the magic back inside of her. Time begins again with a whoosh sound and the secretary continues her movement to bar the door.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Please take a seat and wait. When the doctor comes, I will tell him you are here."

Finding it hard to muster the original emotion, Piper only whimpers a final "please". The exhaaustion in the word can easily be taken for defeat, and as the secretary doesn't move, Piper turns to the chairs lined across the hall. When she arrives at the red plastic chairs, she sits down in one, and just looks at the floor, watching the secretary out of the corner of her eye. In only another moment, Dr. Kulger walks into the secretary's area, and she can just barely hear the conversation.

"Hello, Trisha. How are things over here?"

"Mostly fine. No more newspapers, that's a good thing. Everyone out of the hospital?"

"Yes, I've signed the release forms on the last of them, and reminded them to be careful of where the step from now on." Dr. Kluger picks up one of the cliboards are starts looking over what must be the records for his next patient. "My next patient isn't scheduled for another 15 minutes. Is she here yet?"

The secretary looks down at her watch. "20, by my clock." She taps the clock with a finger before looking back at the doctor. "Anyway, yes, this woman did arive." She motions towards Piper with her eyes, being careful not to point at her. "She claims to be, umm," she flicks through the notes on the computer, "Paige's sister. She says you were expecting her."

Dr. Kluger looks out into the waiting room. "Yes, that's Joeseline. Josie, as her sister, Maragaret, calls her. Paige is Margaret's middle name. Most of her family prefers that one." The secretary starts to enter the information on the computer before Dr. Kluger stops her. "No, its not neccesary to take that down. Anyway, I need to have a meeting with her about her sister. Please send her into the conference room."

"Yes, Dr." Dr. Kluiger leaves the room before Trisha slides the window back and calls out to Piper. Piper raises her head even before Trisha calls. "Joseline. Dr. Kluger will see you now. Come right back her, and I will take you back to the conference room." Piper gets up, her face controlled. She doesn't know if she is supposed to be displaying nervousness, sadness, or fright, so she chooses to display none, hoping that will elicit the least remark. She follows the secretary through the door and down the hallway into another room. There is a small simple formica table in the middle of the room, with simple plastic chairs laid out around the table. Cabinets line the walls, and a microwave stands out on the neat counters.

"Please, have a seat, Joeseline. Dr. Kluger will be here momentarily." The secretary waits until Piper sits down in one of the seats on the side of the table and then leaves, closing the door quietly behind her. Piper waits for only a minute before the door opens again to admit Dr. Kluger into the room. He moves with his normal speed to the table and settles into a chair across from Piper.

"Would you like a muffin, perhaps, Ms. Halliwell?" He says before getting back up and opening one of the cabinets.

"Please, thats would be nice. And I believe you are thinking about my sister, Pheobe. I am Piper, the married one. Remember?"

He sits back down and slides a package of muffins across the table. "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot. Its har to remember things that come up in the heat of emotion. Thats why a doctor has to remain composed and focused." He finishes off the muffin quickly before continuing.

"Now then, do you know what happened?"

"Nothing." Piper shakes her head. "I know what happened before we split up, but I was hoping we could just avoid demons and the like while we were looking for a way out of this mess."

"Alright," began D. Kluger. "Let me just see that necklace of your's again before we start." Piper withdraws it again and holds it up in the air. The ruby glistens and Dr. Kluger seems satisifed.

"Out of cuiosity," Piper says while she drops the pendant to hang outside her shirt, "how do you know so much about magic? You don't seem like a wizard. And I doubt by now that you are a warlock?"

Dr. Kluger raises an eyebrow. "I assume those terms means something more to you than they do me, but I only know of two kinds of magic users, good ones and one's I'd prefer not to meet. Oh, and white lighters, those I recognize. Lke I said to Paige, when you've been around as long as I have, you tend to see certain things. If you keep your eyes open."

Dr. Kluger arose from his chair, and spun around behind, resting his arms on the back of it, and leaning forward. "Starting with this rose bush for one. This deadly one. All I know is that it sprouted up in my neighborhood suddenly and consumed its first vitim: the propeiters of a drug store."

Piper stiffled a laugh. "You do sound like my grandfather."

Dr. Kluger snorted through his white mustache. "It's affectionate and endearing I know. But it works to distract the patient when she is most nervous." A pale quickly overtook Piper's face. "I apologize for bringing you back so suddenly like that, but every moment counts right now. I wasn't kidding when I

said that Paige is dying."

"You said that the bush consumed. How does a bush consume?"

"Well, it seems thats its vines move to latch onto its prey. The papers denied it, so I went along with it. 'Poison sap leaking from its thorn inducing a radioactive malady paralyzing the organ's functions and begin an immediate detioriation cycle.' Some such hooey. But really its magic. Thats just the symptom."

"Where is the bush now?"

"Still in the store. I had the place cordoned off and no one is even allowed within 15 feet of the entire building."

Dr. Kluger straightens. "Come on," he says, "its time to tell you what I know about Paige so you can solve this mess."

Piper arose, muttering under her breath. "If I can solve my own."

Dr. Kluger pulled a thick file off of the desk back in the Quarantine area and handed a few leaflets to Piper. While she looked at them, he remarked, glancing around the room, "I can't believe all of these beds, and more at the hospital, were filled until she came along. And now she almost fills all of them."

"Dr.," Paige interrupted. "I can't read them. Just tell me what they mean."

He walked over to her and pointed to an x-ray copy with a pen. "This is what I very much wanted to hide from the government. Everyone else has already gotten up, so they would wonder why she hasn't. For now, they don't know that she exists as a patient. That's why you've changed your names here." He pulled the x-ray out of her hands and laid it against a lit board. "This," he said, circling a dense patch, "is that anomoly. every test I do shows thats its there but can't identify what it is. In fact, every test identifies it as being a positive for that test. So we've got a positive blood anamoly, radiocative anomaly, even a foreign object. It shows up as all of them."

He takes down the first x-ray and places another up. "And this is it ysterday. See, its growing."

"How did she get it?"

"That pendant, that's how." Piper reaches up to clasp the pendant with her hand, shocked by the force of her words. "She, I don't know, traced the magic first in the hospital, where I found her attemtping to heal the other patients. During visiting hours of all times!"

Dr. Kluger moved over to look at Paige's face in the bed. "Have some sense next time," he says, pleadingly, "please."

"Anyway," he continued, his eyes still on Paige's figure. "She couldn't effect it while she had the pendant on. So she took it off and tried again. After explaining a little to me about who she is. Not enough, but enough that I knew she had two other magical sisters. Called in the wizarding world, the Charmed Ones, you are, that is. So she took of the pendant. And then she tried again. It worked this time. I almost saw the haze lift from the patient she healed. And the spell flowed into her. She had said it was meant to be targeting her. She felt faint immediately. I took her around on my rounds quickly and she healed all of them. And then she passed out, right after the last one. It was close. I had to hold her arm for the last few." Tears line his face now, falling past his mustace and glistening his cheeks. "It was the hardest thing I've had to do. Sacrifice one for the many. Not how a doctor normally works."

He turned to face Piper. "But I managed to contact you. I assume through the TV interview. I was praying that they wouldn't cut the crucial line." He walked back over to the desk and collected the papers back into the folder. "So what now?" he asked while he sorted them. "How are we, and by that I mean primarily you, going to heal her?" He stopped suddenly and spuin to her, the force returning to his voice. "And you aren't going to take that blasted pendant off either. You hear me?"

"I'm not," she replied, her eyes lowered, her head shaking. "That's good."

"No, I'm not. Going to heal her."

"What?"

"I can't," she said, her eyes meeting his, reflecting the force burning his father's eyes. "It's not my specialty. It's hers. I couldn't, I don't think."

"What then? Wait for her to wake up and heal herself? Or for more white lighters to come? She told me already. They're all in trouble too."

"No. I do my specialty. Take me to the rose bush. I'm going to destroy the source. We'll see what that does."

The "drug store" actually has a sign up labelling it "Herbal Remedies and General Pharmacy". A Wiccan symbol is clearly found in the store window. A police do-not-cross line is flagged around posts around the site. The site is dark with the setting sun, but no one is around. Fortunately, no one wants to be near to this deadly place.

The store stands in the middle of a city block, and Dr. Kluger's blue sedan screeches around the corner onto the street. He drives by the drug store and stops on the other side of the street, just a little bit further down the street than the store is situated. Piper opens the door as soon as the car stops and says, "Stay here," to Dr. Kluger. She gets out and eyes the store front.

Displayed in one of the windows is a prominent display of various medical rememdies. The other window is open and looks into the store. A pot laid on the windowsill has tipped over and broken the glass of the window. A large vine has grown out of the pot and wrapped itself around the frame of the window and part of the door. Tentacles sprawl out for a few feet across the ground. Yellow blossoms dot the length of vine and hideon thorns loom often across the green fingers.

Piper starts to walk forward across the pavement, advancing toward the storefront when the car door behind her slams. She turns and see Dr. Kluger standing behind the car, a short fat gun in his hand.

"I told you to stay there. This will be a magic that I hope to be finished with quickly. We can't let you get hurt."

"All the same," he shouted back across the meters between them. "I'll cover you." He cocked the gun with a swift motion and moved around to the side of the car closer to the storefront.

"With that? What good is a gun against a plant?"

"Its a flare gun. Its a plant, so it should burn. If not, I've got an axe in the trunk." He smiled, and motioned for her to move on. "Let's get this done with and then we can get back to Paige."

Piper turns and starts advancing toward the storefront. She walks slowly, her hands raised, ready to cast her magic out should anything happen, but plant doesn't move. When she is only a few feet away, Dr. Kluger calls out. "Be careful. It actually grew to attack anyone else who got too close."

"The magic in the pendant protects me," she calls back, and whispers, "I hope," and then continues advancing. Piper moves gingerly throught the open door, being careful not to touch the plant.

The inside of the drug store is small and filled with many types of herbs. Some of them she doesn't recognize but she sees that many of them would be useful for potion making. She assumes that the store was a front for an actual magic gathering, and moves to the other side of the chashiers desk. She quickly searches through the drawers before finding a small notebook with a strange symobl marked on it. She turns it over and sees a name written in white ink on the back of the notebook, "Jesicca Mackie". Piper puts the notebook on the desk and continues searching, but finds nothing else of note. Returning to the notebook, she thumbs through it and finds all the pages to be blank, except for the last. There it is written "Wiccan, cast a spell to see."

Piper closes the book and taps its spine on the desk while looking around the rest of the room. A glass bottle is shattered beneath the plant, and the rest of the room is lined with shelves for herbs, remedies and drugs. Nowhere else to hide much. Piper looks at the book, and absentmindedly says, "Hmm." She opens to a random page, squints at it and says "Blinded by ink's dissapearance, sight endowed by my appearance." The letters on the page fade into view, and Piper quickly flips to the last entry and starts to read, quickly.

"The plant infects me, but in doing, I have found the key. The infection is a separate entity. A baby. Independant. The key is a receptacle. It flows, searching. For what, I know not. Still..." The writing grows weak, and harder to read. Likely, the author had been infected and the disease's symptoms, paralyzation, was starting to take effect. Piper focuses on the words. "Still to draw it out of me and into the receptacle is the key. _Glass to bind and blood to trap, let the plauge be_--"

The plant moves it's fingers and many things happen at once. A cat meows outside the door and Dr. Kluger yells. "Piper, get out of there!" A flare shot flies toward the pot, its streamer trailing smoke. Glass shatters again, and the cat leap through the window, the vine wrapped around it and being dragged along. The flare lands in the pot and tips it over. The vine falls to the floor and erups into flame. Piper screams, and throws her hand up, dropping the book and freezing time. The flame freezes, but the vine does not, and grows away from the frozen flame.

"Shit," shouts Piper. "I still can't effect it." Piper swings her hand at it again, but it still doesn't freeze, and the vine crushes the cat, its blood draining out. Piper waves her hands again and the world returns to its time flow and cat runs farther back into the store. The fire catches on the floor now that the vine has moved and starts to spread. "Shit," says Piper again, and takes off for the door.

"Piper!" shouts Dr. Kluger once she clears the threshhold.

"Get that axe out," she yells back, and runs five feet away from the plant and rips the necklace off. She holds it in her hand a moment and drops it to the ground. As soon as it leaves her hand, the entire vine rears to life and starts creeping towards her from across the width of the storefront. Piper raises her hand and starts casting explosive magic against all of the vines. They start exploding in bursts of green pieces, one by one. The stubs grow shorter, but shoot out again with renewed strength. The cat screeches from in the storefront and a blaze begins to grow behind the glass. The tendrils creep closer and Piper continues to blow them up. One snakes around from behind and she leaps away from it, blasting it quickly and continuing to blast until the vine retreats to the storefront. Piper turns her efforts to another vine when the cat leaps from the storefront window, still trailing a bloody vine, its fur now on fire. Piper screams and dodges backwards, tripping and falling. A vine makes a renewed thrust at her and she rolls away just in time for Dr. Kluger to throw down his fireman's axe an inch away from her. He scraps the axe along the ground, throwing the vine away from Piper as she rolls over and blows it up in the air.

Piper rolls farther away and Dr. Kluger races to her and helps her up. She destroys a few more vines but the vines continue to grow towards her. She looks at the blaze now burning across the floor of the storefront and shouts, "_Blaze brighten and fire burn, for the vine shall your tendrils yearn_." A glass in the window cracks loudly and the fire roars to higher life. A shot leaps out the window and takes the vine, traveling along its length in all directions. The vines begin to hiss, turning black, but continue to grow.

Piper moves farth back from the storefront, still destroying vines with every movement of her hands and casts another spell. "_Vine's growth now decompose, let the vine melt as a dead rose!_" The vine's hiss grows louder and vine's growth staggers and slows. Piper continues to destroy the slowed vines until their stubs poke out of the windows and onto the ground and those stubs start to turn black and fall to thr ground in a puddle of ash.

Piper walks closer to the burning storefront and picks upthe discarded pendant. She takes a moment to peer through the window and the consuming fire. Dr. Kluger walks to her side and whistles. "You were right. I see that this is your specialty."

Piper turns and starts walking back to the car, her face cross. "Come on, lets get back to Paige. Do you have a cellphone?"

"Yes," says Dr. Kluger, opening the car door. "Why?"

"Call the fire department." Piper climbs into the car, and Dr. Kluger follows, starting the ignition.

"Report the blaze. It needs to be put out. The vine shouldn't harm them anymore."

"But they'll trace it to me! I don't want you guys to be found out, and I don't want myself involved in magic anymore than needed."

Piper looks at him. "Trust me, I empathasize. But call anonymously. They won't bother tracking it. And I doubt Rosaline, the enchantress, won't know about this anyway. The pendants should hide us from her atleast."

Dr. Kluger takes the phone out of the pocket in the side of the door and hands it to Piper. "Fine, but you call. I'm taking us home."

Piper dials and the operator files her call away quickly. As soon as she hangs up, Dr. Kluger asks if Piper thinks that it worked.

"What worked?"

"Killing the vine. Did it save Paige?"

"I don't know, but I don't think so. Do you know Jessica Mackie?"

"Yes, she was the first to be injured by the vine." His voice grows solemn for a moment. "She didn't get up. Why?"

"She was a magic user. She left a message back there which could have helped Paige. I didn't get to read it all before the action started."

"What?," Dr. Kluger slams on the gbreaks, nearly skidding the car. "We need to go back and get it!"

"Too late," Piper says, her voice calm, the eye in the storm. "The fire has taken it by now."

"Damn," curses Dr. Kluger, slamming his fists on the wheel. "Oh, excuse me," he says almost immmediately and continues driving. "What now?"

"Well, I think I got enough of the message to help Paige. If she needs it. Let's hope she doesn't."

"Agreed."

The back door to the office opens and Dr. Kluger walks the few feet from it to the quarantine room, escorting Piper in. They quickly move into the room, nearly holding their breath until they see Paige's prone form still lying on the bed. Dr. Kluger breaks the silence first.

"So what did Jessica say about this problem?"

"See, she seemed to have contracted the spell herself, correct? So she attempted to develop a counterspell. She wanted to lure the spell inside of her out using a glass bottle and some blood. Do we have a glass bottle here?"

"I'm sure I can come up with something." Dr. Kluger turns to the desk and starts rummaging through things. Triumphantly, he holds up his find. "How about a large flask?"

Piper takes it out of his hands and holds it under her arm. In her other hand, she is holding a small pocket knife attacked to her keychain. "And now for the blood." She moves the kinfe to her finger, but Dr. Kluger reaches out and stops her.

"I don't think that is right." Piper stops and looks at him. "Jessica was going to use her blood. You need infencted blood. Paige's."

Piper thinks for a moment and then shakes her head, lowering the knife.

"And I think we should do it sterile." He holds up a needle and then moves over to Paige's bedside. He quickly wraps a rubber tie around her arm, pats her arm with some alchohol gauze, and pokes the needle through the skin. His finger's deft, the tube quickly fills with blood. As soon as it has reached it limit, he hands the needle to Piper who takes it gingerly. He wipes her arm and lays a bandage over the small pinprick while Piper pushes the blood back out of the tube and into the flask.

Holding it by the neck, she proclaims, "and now for the spell."

A shimmering noise sounds behind her and a fireball rushes under her hand, decimating the flask in its fury. Piper spins and sees a burly demon shimmering into the room. His forehead protudes over his eye, and his face still radiates fury. His trenchcoat flails behind him and a fireball bounces in his hand. Around each wrist is a bloodly cut, circling around the whole wrist, and blood collects in it. White blood. A drop falls to floor.

His voice is rough. "Hello, witch. I've found you."

Dr. Kluger reacts instantly, much quicker than Piper, and leaps toward the demon, a flying tackle rushing toward him in a blur. The demon brushes him aside easily with a racking action of his arm and he tumbles towards one of the beds with a clatter. Piper starts to raise her arms to freeze the demon, and he kneels quickly. Faster than though, clones of the demon appear to his side, three in each direction, forming right as Piper freezes time with a imploding whoosh.

Each of the six images moves their shoulder up, fighting the spell. Piper keeps her hands up, attempting to maintain the magic but cannot. The six images throw their shoulders up, time returns with an explosion, and they complete their movement to a standing stance, their shoulder leading their movement. The original demon rolls forward and images seems to collapse and flow into his body as he does so. He finishes his roll and leaps up immediately in front of Piper. Piper raises her hands and at the same time the demon grabs them, holding them parellel to the floor.

White sparks flash off of their conjoined hands and a single white spark flashes at the top of each of the demon's wrists, right at the blood line. The spark doesn't fade, but instead, each spark split into two and starts running around the line of blood. As soon as they begin to move, another two sparks, these red as human blood, appear on each of Piper's wrists. The sparks run quickly: Where the white sparks moved, only flesh is left behind but the red sparks leave behind a cut trailing along behind them. In less than a moment, all the pairs of sparks meet and the magic is completed.

The demons releases Piper hands and flings them forcefully down. They swing to her sides and Piper collapses to her knees. The demon turns and starts walking down the length of the room. "Your magic is blocked, witch. Now you will watch your sister die." He starts to shimmer away. "And then I will come for you." His shimmer completes with a coarse, low laugh.

Piper tears flow again. She looks up towards the sky, tears falling from her cheeks and blood from her wrists. Only one word can come to mind, and she screams it with all her might. "Leo!" She cries a moment more before saying more quietly, "Leo! Leo, what can I do now?" She puts her head down, closes her eyes and repeats the word quietly one more time, agonized, almost a whisper. "Leo."

Bells jingle.

Piper's head shoots up, her eyes shoot open. "Leo?" She falls backwards in a slump.


	3. Chapter 3

Piper opens her eyes and realizes instantly that she is looking at the ceiling. The roof is tiled and white. Nearly blindingly so. She blinks, attempting to clear the fuzz from her head. She rolls her head to the side and looks at the room. The room is familiar, but she can't place it. She feels light headed and feels almost like going back to sleep. Her eyes start to drop and her head rolls to the side. Immediately before her eyelids shut, she sees another bed next to her. A sheet covers most of the body, but the head pokes out from under the end. Paige's head lays there.

Piper's eyes shoot open. "Paige," she says, her voice loud in the empty room. The memories rush back to her, dissolving the fog of sleep in a blinding flash. She sits up in bed and the room spins a little. She decides it would be better to move slowly. Piper rubs her hand against one arm, and her hand works its way down to a bandage wrapped around her wrist. A small line of red stains the bandage as if a child had drawn a bracelet on her wrist with a magic marker. Piper stands up and walks over to the door to look out the window.

A nurse stands in the hallway, reviewing some charts and Piper opens the door and walks out. The nurse looks up at her and smiles. "Oh, Joseline. How are you feeling?"

Piper takes a second to reply, having to recognize the alias she is using in the clinic. "Oh, could be better, I guess. Where is the Doctor?"

"With a patient. He said for you to wait for him to be out and he will come back and see you. Can I offer you some juice or cookies? You've lost some blood. Some food would be very good for you."

"Yes, please," Piper says and trudges down the hallway after the nurse. The nurse leads her back into the conference room and opens a cabinet and then the fridge hidden inside. Piper falls into one of the plastic chairs and the nurse hands her a bottle of juice and a package of animal crackers.

"Enjoy," she says, a smile lighting up her face and back out the door. Piper cracks the seal on the juice and starts sipping. She leans back in the chair and tries to collect her memories of the demon attacker. She can't remember much, or even all of what happened. The demon appeared and destroyed her charm before she had a chance to complete it. She had tried to fight him but couldn't remember what happened. Piper raises her arms and scratches at the itchy bandages, and then she remembers what happened. He blocked her magic. Only after resisting her freezing powers. Piper takes the cap of the juice bottle and flips it into the air. While it spins, Piper throws her hands up, trying to release the magic, but the cap plunks to the table. Piper picks the cap up, determined, and throws it up into the air again.

"Testing your powers?" Dr. Kluger says as he walks into the conference room. His face is a smile, but Piper can see that his eyes are morose.

Piper doesn't answer but instead tries again. The cap falls to the table and she looks at it for the moment. After a pause, she moves quickly, grabbing the cap, jumping out of the chair and hurling it into the waste bin. The room spins and she staggers. Dr. Kluger rushes over to her and eases her back into the chair.

"You need to rest more," he says. "The cut may seem thin, but it bled alot before any of the nurses found us. Its on a good vein." He pulls back the bandage and looks for a moment. After confirmation, he pulls it back further and shows Piper. "See? Its already clotted though. You shouldn't really need these bandages, but we will keep them on just to be safe. Ok?"

Dr. Kluger pulls up a seat across from her. Piper asks, "how long was I out?"

"You mean unconscious? Only a few minutes really, but you've been asleep for about two hours. You talked in your sleep. Do you remember anything?"

"No. I can only barely remember the..." She hesitates. "The attacker."

"The demon, I believe you referred to him as. The rest of this office though only believes it was an addict breaking in for some drugs. I've been complaining that the back door isn't secure enough for years. Now I've proven it!" He smiles at his joke, but Piper doesn't react.

"Anyway," he continues. "Immediately before you passed out, you called someone's name. Leo, I believe it was, correct?"

"Yes. He's my husband."

"The trapped one?"

"The same."

"Do you remember why you called out his name?"

"I was frustrated. Its not an abnormal reaction, calling out a beloved person's name like that. Especially when he used to actually be able to hear you."

"No, after that. You almost sounded like--."

"I heard him! You're right. I did!" She wrinkles her brow. "But what did I hear him say?" She closes her eyes and whispers. "Leo, if you can hear me, please talk to me again. Please." She waits a moment, but nothing happens.

She sighs. "He said he loved me. That's all I can remember."

Dr. Kluger hands her a small dictaphone. "Maybe this will help. You talked while you were in your sleep, so I recorded it." Piper takes it and puts it to her ear. "Maybe it will help," says Dr. Kluger.

Piper presses the play button and ears only silence for a moment. Then she hears her own voice. Barely, and only murmuring. But its her. She strains her ear for a moment and hears a name. Jane Brahm? Can help, those words she hears clearly. Something like Oakville. Ghost stories? Dead birth? She rewinds the tape and plays through it again. Halfway through it, her memory latches on, and she can remember.

"He said he loved me, and that he is holding me as tightly as he can. That he kisses me on my forehead." She smiles, remembering. "He says that he will tell me whatever he can to help. James Brown, nearly born dead. The parents prayed for a savior, and the baby was healed by a white lighter. The mother saw it and learned about magic. The story was made into a miracle. The child is gifted."

Piper rubs her forehead. "The whole thing is latched with pain. Like reaching a finger through a prickly hole, just barely dodging around the worst of it. At the end, Leo must have... The message just stops in a torrent of pain."

"Did Leo say where this boy lived?"

"Lives. His white lighter kept track of him. He's in Oakville. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah. Its near here. About an hour's drive."

"Can you track him down?"

"I don't know, but we can try?"

"Good. Is there a bus heading there?"

"A bus?" Dr. Kluger is incredulous. "I'm driving you." He gets up and takes off his lab coat.

"You? But what about your patients."

Dr. Kluger laughs. "Hah. I've been putting off patients since you've arrived. Come on. We don't have time. We need to find him soon. Paige doesn't have much time."

Dr. Kluger sedan rolls by the town hospital. Children are playing in the park across the street. Dr. Kluger is on his cell phone. "Yes, Information? I'd like the number for James Brown."

"I'm sorry," crackles the operator in reply. "Its unlisted. Is there anything else?"

"No. Thanks." Dr. Kluger flips the phone shut and parks the car next to curb.

"Homey little place, no, Piper?"

"Right, homey." Piper watches the children playing in the park.

Dr. Kluger gets out of the car, leans in the window, and addresses Piper. "I'm going into the hospital to see if I can pull some strings and get the records on this miracle birth. Ok? You stay here."

Piper nods, and then changes her mind. "Actually, Dr. Kluger. I'm just going to be walking around. Leo said that it was newspaper story when it happened. Someone should know about it."

"Good idea," he replies. "You may as well ask around about James Brown too. This town is small enough, I expect someone will know him." Dr. Kluger reaches into the side pocket of the car door again and hands Piper a cell phone. "Hang onto this. Its my personal cellphone. If anything happens, call me."

Dr. Kluger turns and heads into the hospital, while Piper heads over to the playground. She walks over to the first older woman there. A woman is sitting on a bench by herself, watching the children playing basketball. Two games are going on: One where a bunch of little children are running around, throwing the ball around with little sense of order. On the other court, some guys, looking about college age, are playing a more serious game. Piper sits down on the bench next to the woman.

"Hello," Piper says, putting a smile on her face.

"Hello there," replies the woman, a smile on her face in kind. "You have children out there?"

"No, no. I'm just here researching a paper. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure, no problem. What's the paper?"

"Oh, just a paper on the analysis of the media coverage on 'modern day miracles'. I heard that one occurred right here, in the hospital here. A baby nearly died here, and then was miraculously healed. Ever hear anything about that?"

"Oh," replies the woman, keeping her eyes on the children. "You hear about those all the time. But there was only one that you are looking for. The news covered. Big city news even. The San Fran trucks came out to cover it. A child was going to be born still born, but the mother was real devout. She just kept praying and praying and never lost hope. And the child came out healthy. A real miracle baby. he's done us real proud."

"Really? You know the child?"

"Sure, of course. We all rejoiced with Mrs. Brown when her child came out. It was an easy birth even."

"Can you introduce me to him?"

The mother laughs a triffle. "Sure, but I don't think there's any need for that. He should be hanging around here about now. He loves basketball. He's quite good. Just go ask one of the kids. They'll take you to him."

"Thanks. You've been real helpful."

"Sure. Thats what people are supposed to do right?"

Piper smiles at her and glides off the bench. She walks over to the children playing their game and bends down to one of them standing on the side lines, waiting his turn to go in.

"Hi there," she says.

"Hello, lady," the kid says.

"Having fun."

"Yeah. We're winning. Five to nothing!"

"Nu-uh," shouts a girl from the opposite side line. "You're losing five to ten! And you know it!"

The boy puts his hand over his mouth conspiratorially and whispers. "Don't believe her. We're really winning. Hey! You wanna join?"

Piper smiles. "No, I don't think I can. I'm looking for James Brown. Do you know him?"

The kids smirks. "James? Yeah. He's real good. He could lick anyone on the court."

"Do you know where he is now?"

"Who James?" The boy looks around, and then points off the court. "Yeah, he's right over there." His finger leads to a bit of empty sideline. Behind that a fence walls in the basketball court. On the other side of it, a small child is being escorted by a larger man. The two look like family, with some resemblance between them, but about 10 years separates them. The younger looks to be about 14, while the other is about 24. The child runs along toward a parked car quickly, while the older man paces along, pensive. He looks built strong and his face looks southern. The child has the same southern look in his face, but his age prevents it from showing through as much.

"That kid is James?" asks Piper. "Who's car is that?"

"That's his Ma in the car. And that's James, yeah." The child in front of Piper puffs up, looking proud. "You want me to introduce ya?"

Piper smiles. "Nah. I think I can handle it. Thanks."

"Sure. Good luck."

Piper walks away from the court and heads over to the little kid. The man has headed over to the car and is leaning into the window, talking to James' mother. The kid has picked up the ball and is dribilling it back toward the court, ready to head back into the game. Piper gets in front of him and the kid palms the ball. "Hey, you. You're not half bad."

"Thanks," the kid says and dribbles the ball between his legs.

Piper smiles, and asks, "are you James Brown?"

The kid laughs. "Me? James Brown? Nah." He points to the older man who has just gotten in the car and started to drive off. "That's my brother, James. He's real good. Much better than me. You should see him play." The kid takes a dribble forward and shoots a ball into the air straight up, catching it as it angles back down. "Yeah... Like that." He pauses for a second, and then looks at Piper quizzically. Piper isn't even watching him, she just watches the car drive away. "Why?" asks the kid. "What'cha need?"

Piper turns to him. "You're his brother right?"

"Yeah, name's Mike."

"Where's James headed? I need to talk to him."

"Home, leastwise, that's where Mom's taking him."

"Where is home?"

"You know your way around here?"

"Well enough."

Dr. Kluger's phone rings. "Hello?"

"Its Piper. I've got his address. We need to go. I just missed him, and I don't know how long he'll be home."

The sedan pulls up into a small driveway. The house is a small house set tight between its two neighbors. Piper and Dr. Kluger get out and walk up to the front door. Piper rings the doorbell and a voice calls out from inside. "Who is it?"

"Hello," she calls out. "Can I speak to Mr. Brown?"

The door bolts unlock and the door opens. A middle aged man opens the door and looks at Piper and then at Dr. Kluger. "Hello. And who are you?"

"My name is Dr. Kluger."

"And I am Piper Haliwell. We need to talk to your son, James. We need his help."

"His help? With what?"

"To save my sister's life."

"You're talking to the wrong people. Ask the doctor. Saving lives is his job. My son's not a doctor. He can't help you."

The man starts to close the door, but Piper grabs it. "No. Saving lives isn't a doctors job. Its a white lighters." The man's eyes widen and he lets the door open the rest of the way.

Mrs. Brown is sitting in a rocking chair reading and James is on the couch studying from a textbook. The table is pulled up to him and he is copying some notes out of the book onto a notebook next to it. Mr. Brown walks in. "Honey. There are some people come to see us. They know something interesting." Mr. Brown turns to Piper. "Piper Haliwall, Dr. Kluger. Allow me to introduce you to my wife, Gina." Gina puts her book down in her lap and James leans back in the chair as they are introduced to the room.

"Hello. Believe me, I am sorry to disturb you like this, but I need your help."

Mr Brown interrupts, motioning to a chair. "Piper. Why don't you sit down and explain to us what exactly you need from us. And, possibly more importantly, what you know."

Piper remains standing and looks around the room. She fixes her eyes on James and attempts to size him up. Save for his muscular build, you wouldn't take him as out of the ordinary. He looks hardworking, but not like someone who has used magic. Then again, I doubt she looks much like a witch and more like a regular mother. Or very worried sister in this case. She pulls in a breath to calm herself before addressing Mrs. Brown.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Brown--"

"Gina."

"Gina. You've seen magic before, right?" James' eyes widen at the unexpected question.

Gina looks at her with a solemn face. "I have and pray I don't need to." James turns his head to his mother and his eyes go wider.

"What?" he says, incredulous. "Magic? You mean, like Johnson type of Magic, right?"

Piper asks, "Gina, I need his help, James'. Do you want to tell him what happened, or shall I?"

Gina ignores the question and instead turns to James, her eyes soft. Tired. Maybe even scared. "James, you've read the stories about your birth." Silence from him. He listens only. She nods her head at it and just begins talking silently. "You know what they say. How you were meant to die and yet survived. That faith can truly work miracles. Not all miracles remain unexplained. Or at least not totally unexplained. I prayed for days on end before your birth. The doctors told me that I wasn't getting enough sleep, I was staying awake praying so much. The doctors were nearly certain that you were going to be stillborn, but they didn't want to just tell me. They kept trying to keep up hope. They don't do it well when they don't have hope themselves.

"One doctor did have hope. He came in late one night. He said he ran the late shift." Gina smiles for a moment, and the tone of story changes for a moment. "I think he would have said that he ran the graveyard shift had the situation been any different." Gina's eyes harden again, and the moment passes. "He said the others in the hospital had told him that I needed to get some sleep and that I was to be put to bed. He offered me an injection to help me sleep. I said that I wanted to continue to pray, continue my vigil, but he said that he refused to allow me kill myself and my child by doing that.

"I nearly jumped at those words. He actually had hope for my child. You could feel it in those words. I needed to sleep so my child could get well. He meant it. I took the injection. I leaned back and closed my eyes and felt it take over. I was so elated though, my emotions refused to allow me to sleep. And then I felt it. A light in my belly, almost. Warm and soothing. I let it go for a moment, thinking it was the drugs. But it went on too long and I thought that something was wrong with the baby. With you, James. So I opened my eyes to call a doctor.

"And the doctor was still there. He had his hands over my belly and they were shining blue. I watched, fascinated and I knew that it wasn't the drugs. He was doing something to me. The light from his hand seem to cool and then dissipate and I could feel warmth in my stomach again. He had saved you James. Something he had done had given you renewed strength and life. I felt you kick instantly.

"He turned to look at me and saw that I was awake. He froze. 'What did you see?' he asked.

"'Are you an angel?' I asked.

"'No.' he said. 'But you must keep the secret. I know you must, for my sake and your own. For your son will need to keep his own one day. We are called white lighters, beings who watch over our appointed witches and can heal those who need. We all fight for good, in an Army of Heaven.' He raised his fingers to his lips. 'Keep our secret and preserve your son's, when he learns of his own secret. Now be quiet and sleep. You really do need your rest.' My arms were so tired and he reached up and closed my eyelids and I fell asleep."

Piper didn't allow for a moment of silence as the story finished. "And now we need your help," she said forcefully. "Our sister is dying and we need you to help her."

Mr. Brown's face was dark and angry. "Why don't you call your white lighters to help? Leave our son out of this! He needs to take his exams starting in two days. He cannot throw that away to go gallivanting around the world with you magicians and illusionists!"

Gina called to him "Honey!" at the same moment that Piper started moving toward him, her face flustered. Dr. Kluger quickly reached out from behind and grabbed her arm. Piper stopped moving, but didn't stop speaking.

"How dare you! My husband is one of those white lighters, and they saved your son's life! Now they are trapped by the same person who is killing my sister, and you claim that you can't help because of exams! She's dying, dammit!"

James started laughing. Quietly, but he laughed. Piper stopped, frozen in her tracks. She almost jumped on him, but he spoke up before she had a chance. "Mom, what was that man's name? The one who healed me?"

"Ummm, I believe it was Charles Pryce."

"Have you seen him again since?"

"I have seen him around, but only for a moment. He has been quite busy."

James scratched his head and smiled. "Well, I'll be..."

"What is it?" asked his mother.

"You know who he is? He's the 'Paladin'. Everyone at school knows him. He finds guys who are good at subjects and guys who are bad at subjects and pays them to tutor. Pays the weaker student to 'tutor' too, if he needs the incentive. Makes sense now, the whole 'lay on hands' thing."

"What are you talking about, son?" asked his father.

"Well, he claims its an old martial art. He can make a person feel better just by touching them. Doesn't use it much, but if you really suffering, he'll do his trick. Some of the guys claim its just hocus pocus, a placebo, and whatnot. I've never believed them."

Piper addressed him. "I'm sorry, but I need for you to come help us. Quickly. Will you help or not?"

Gina spoke to her. "Piper, I don't think he knows what to do."

"Actually, Mom. I may." James got up, and stretched. "He told me once that my inner power can be unlocked in my dreams. And that night I dreamed." He suddenly charged at Piper and Dr. Kluger. Piper could resist instinct and raised her hand to cast her freezing power towards him. Dr. Kluger instinct was much more potent: He pushed Piper out of the way, and she bowled over the couch. He raised his arm, attempting to lock his arm around the charging man's head. In a flash, James ducked under arm. But he didn't duck. He just shrank. His tall height shrunk two feet smaller and he ran right under Dr. Kluger surprised arm. Dr. Kluger spun, following him, and James stopped. He turned to face Dr. Kluger, and smiled, his full height regained. And then he charged again, straight toward Dr. Kluger. Dr. Kluger put his fists up to uppercut the charging young man, but James again shrunk, even smaller, and slid right under his feet. James picked himself up and dusted off his slacks. He then smiled and started laughing.

"That went just like I dreamed! That was great!"

Piper smacked him behind the head as she walked around the couch. "Yeah, did that happen in the dream?" she says sarcastically.

Gina is standing, her expression puzzled. "James, do you know what you are doing?"

"Yeah, I think so. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon enough to help."

Mr. Brown walks over to his son, his voice definitely not conciliatory. "You get back her as soon as possible, understood."

Gina interrupts, soothing over her husband's harsh voice. "Honey..."

"And call frequently."

"Sure Dad." He turns to Dr. Kluger. "Who's driving?"

The sedan pulls up to the clinic and the group gets out. A locksmith is operating on the back door and the group sidesteps around him. Dr. Kluger makes a motion to follow him and they quickly enters the quarantine room. He moves quickly to Piper and measures his temperature and then looks over the machines registering her heartbeat. "She's still stable," he announces to the room.

James is clearly uncomfortable. His arms are crossed and he watches Dr. Kluger warily. "Now what," James asks, again addressing the group.

Piper's voice echoes confidently. "We pick up where we left off. Unless you have any idea of how to unblock my magic, we need you to cast the spell."

Dr. Kluger pulls the blinds down on the door's window and takes out another glass flask. James asks, "what spell?"

"She's sick with a magic plague. We are going to try to draw it out of her. And hopefully it will go into the flask and not us." Dr. Kluger hands James a flask with some blood at the bottom of it.

"Ready?" asks Dr. Kluger.

James is visibly pale. "No, not really. Maybe we can start with something, I don't know, easier and less risky?"

"Unless you have any idea how to free my magic so I can do it, no. Dammit James, my sister is dying and we have to heal her now. When she is awake she can heal me and then everything should hopefully be well again. But she needs us now. James, I am going to lead you through it. Everything should be under control."

Dr. Kluger pats James' shoulder and positions him in front of Piper's bed. He moves to Piper's shoulder and whispers in her ear. "What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. Pray. Pray that this miracle child can elicit another miracle."

Piper walks over to James and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Ready?"

"As much as ever."

Piper takes Paige's arm and puts it flat over Paige's stomach and then she backs away. "Dr.? I think I need to cut her arm as well. To allow the plague to drawn out." Dr. Kluger hands her a small scalpel and she delicately makes a small cut in the back of her arm. Standing by the side of the bed, Piper says, "repeat after me," and they begin to chant.

"_Blood to trap._" The blood at the bottom of the flask tightens into a small circle. It glows yellow and then spreads around the bottom of the flask, spreading further than it had before.

"_Glass to bind._" The light flows from the blood as the blood covers the bottom of the glass and just barely licks up the walls. The lights flows even further, layering around the entire glass. It fades as the words end.

"_Let the plague._" The glass begins to absorb, pulling it substance from the room. James feels almost like he is holding a vacuum, but there is no noise save for the echo of the words. James tightens his grip.

"_Be bound in kind!_" A yellow slime seeps slowly out of the wound. "Quick, move to it, James!" shouts Piper, pointing at the cut on Paige's arm. James bounds over it quickly, and the flask almost attempts to rip itself out of his hands, pulling itself toward the yellow slime as soon as James draws near. James hold it and the goop is drawn into the flask instead. At first it is only a few drops of seepage but the flow quickly increases to a waterfall of yellow liquid. The flask begins to fill and the flow stops just as the flask is about to reach its maximum capacity.

"Quickly, cover it!" Dr. Kluger shouts and throws a glass cork to Piper. She catches it and caps the flask, but the flask bounces around wildly in James's hand.

"I think the plague wants to get out," he says tremulously.

Paige groans and Dr. Kluger dashes around the flailing James and takes her temperature again. "The fever is gone," he announces.

"Wake her up already then," shouts Piper.

Dr. Kluger begins lightly stroking her cheek. "Paige, get up," he coos. "Your sister needs you very soon." Her only reply is a groan.

"Its going to break the glass," says James. "Piper, what do I do?"

"I don't know."

"James," says Dr. Kluger. "Shrink it!" James immediately begins shrinking in size until he is only a foot tall. The bottle in his hand is tiny, no bigger than a match head, but its convulsions only grow wilder. Dr. Kluger takes a petri dish off of the desk, lights a few matches and drop them on the petri dish. He then picks up James, with a murmured sorry, and puts him on the table next to the petri dish. "Throw it in!" James spins and heaves the tiny bottle into the bonfire. The flames explode and then stabilize, flickering valiantly until the matches burn down.

James starts to grow again, forming back into size while sitting at the ledge of the table.

"Piper?" Paige sits up, her voice weak, but clearly recognizable. Piper runs toward her and wraps her arms around her.

"Paige? You're better. Oh thank g-d, you're better." She strokes her hair across her forehead.

"Of course I am, silly. I knew you'd do it." She smiles.

Dr. Kluger walks forward, checking the machines beside her bed. "I officially pronounce her cured."

The sun is setting on the city, and most of the clinic's workers have gone home. Dr. Kluger's manager, Julia, is still sitting at the front desk running over the days numbers and Dr. Kluger is in the quarantine room, now relabeled back room, looking over various doctors. Paige is sitting in a chair next to her bed reading over some notes she has fished out of her purse, while James is studying out of a book. They are all waiting while Piper returns with dinner. Shortly, Piper knocks on the front door of the clinic and Julia gets up and opens the door. "What'd you get, Joesie?" asks Julia with a smile, using Piper's alias in the clinic.

Piper walks in the door and fishes out a paper sack and hands it to Julia. "A gourmet meal. I ordered to go from a nice place I know of, P3." Julia takes the bag and head back to her desk while Piper walks back to the back room and enters after a knock.

"What'ja bring?" asks Paige as she enters the door. Piper smiles and hands her a bag. As she walks over to hand another one to Dr. Kluger and James, Paige pulls the card out of her bag and looks shocked.

"You didn't? You went to P3!"

"Don't worry," defends Piper. "I checked first. Rosaline didn't boobytrap it."

"Boobytrap?" asks James, holding the bag gingerly.

"Dorry about that, James," replies Paige. "Rosaline, the enchantress that started this whole mess laid some nasty spells down on a lot of our stuff. That's why we haven't been living at home."

"Oh, well you can feel free to stay here as long as you like. The place is insured," he says with a smile.

Piper chimes in, a valiant tone in her voice. "Well I don't think we should! Paige, I think splitting up was the worst idea I ever had. I think that if we are going to beat this, we need to do it together, even if that does make us into a target! We need to get back together and liberate our home and then liberate Heaven."

"Yeah," says Paige, jumping to her feet. "You said it!"

Dr. Kluger motions for her to sit back down. "Take it easy some, Paige. At least until you have eaten."

Paige sits back down, and then says sorrowfully. "We just need to find Pheobe again to do that."

The buzzer on Dr. Kluger's desk rings. He answers it with a tap and Julia's voice crackles through the intercom.

"Yes, Julia?"

"Dr. Kluger. There is someone calling about a rose necklace. She says she would like it back and that she saw that you had it here at the clinic."

"Hmm, I think I do. Is she on hold?"

"Yes, shall I put her through?"

"Please. Thank you, Julia."

Dr. Kluger picks up the phone. "Hello, this is Dr. Kluger."

"Yes, I did make an interview on the news."

"Oh, you saw it? Yes, it is a beautiful pendant."

"Its yours, you say? Your lucky charmed one? Just a moment, let me check." Dr. Kluger pushes a button on the dial and then puts the phone to his chest. He turns to the sisters, whose eyes are wide with anticipation, and asks, "Do you happen to know a Pheobe Haliwell?"

Paige shouts first. "Pheobe!" Dr. Kluger hands her the phone with a fatherly smile and takes the phone back off hold.

"Pheobe!"

"Paige! Oh thank heaven you are all right. What happened?"

"Well, a nasty spell from the enchantress got me. Piper says she and this demon are hunting us. You've got to be careful. We want to meet back together again."

"Really? That's great. I've got a couple of good leads on help. We can follow them together."

"Good. Where are you?"

"At one of the lead's house. Its the top floor of an apartment building."Pheobe recites the address as Paige says it back to Piper to write down. "She's a witch I happened to track down. She may be able to help us. She has a number of spells and she thinks that she can find a way to track down a white lighter if there are any left here."

"Great, I'll be right over." A whoosh noise sounds through the phone.

"Pheobe?" calls Paige. Paige can hear a shout a distance and then the sound of a door being banged on. Then a cruel voice comes on the phone.

"Well well well, witch. One sister should be dead by now. Would you like to lose another? Lets play a little hide and seek." Paige slams the phone down and turns to Piper.

"Phoebe's in trouble."

"What?"

"Yeah, your demon friend is there."

James says, "Then we've gotta get there fast."

"Can you orb there?" asks Piper.

"Yeah. You got a plan?"

"Yeah. You orb me to the entrance to the building. And then you orb straight in. If you can grab Pheobe and get out of there, great. Meet me back downstairs and we get out there quick. If not, I'm coming in right after you. That should surprise him. He probably thinks there is still only one of us."

James chimes in. "Great plan, but I am coming too."

"Fine, shrink down and keep the element of surprise."

"Yeah," he cheers, hoping up, and shrinking down in mid air. His leap takes his smaller form higher up until he alights on Paige's shoulder. "Ready? Let's go!"

Paige starts to orb as Dr. Kluger bids them farewell with a warning. "Take it easy, Paige. You still need to rest!"

A long living room of a penthouse apartment. Couches are against the wall, and flatscreen TV hangs from one wall. Two door open at the other end of the room, and the main entrance is placed next to the TV. A lantern hangs from the center of the room, a glass fixture hanging around a single bulb. Paige orbs in near the middle of the room, but closer to the door. "Pheobe?" she calls out. "Pheobe are you here?"

Pheobe puts her fingers over her lips and scurries towards her from one of the doors. She covers about half of the distance before the demon swaggers out of the other. "Gotcha, witch." His voice echoes. A ball of flame bobbles above his hands.

Pheobe freezes and straightens up. Paige turns to the side, getting into a preparatory stance. "You think so?" says Pheobe, and the demon launches the ball towards Pheobe. She activates her magic to leap high up into the air, nearly bouncing off the ceiling and avoids the ball easily. It sails forward straight for Paige, but she is ready for it. She moves to the side of its heading minutely, and calls out "Fireball" as it sails past. The ball is engulfed in blue specks and travels to her hand. In a lightning quick move, she flicks the ball towards the demon. It returns to fire as it touches him and blows him backward, knocking him into the wall with a denting thud.

Piper runs toward the entrance to the apartment building. The sun has set and it is dark outside. She bangs on the door, but no one answers. She attempts to ring the buzzer, but again no one answers. She continues banging on the door. "Damn."

Pheobe ricochets off the ceiling with a karate shout and flies a kick toward the stunned demon. She manages to start raining blows and Paige starts running towards them. The demon manages to grab the flying feet and pauses for a moment. Two forms, copies of him, flow away from him to both sides and all three smile. Pheobe attempts to use the leverage granted her and spins around attempting to nail the original in the head with her free foot. One of the copies grabs it before it can connect and the original lets go of her as the duplicate flings her across the room. She knocks into the hanging chandelier and the glass shatters, raining down fiery pinpricks off light. The bulb wavers in mid air, the rim of fixture around it dotted by shards of colored glass and empty air. Pheobe travels across the room and slams into the wall. She slides down the wall, landing in one of the couches, unconscious.

The other two demons summon fireballs again and launch them towards Paige. She again sidesteps them and summons them into her hand. She flings them toward the one copy and he explodes as the contact him. The original reels for a moment, but one of the copies shimmers to stand behind her. He raises his fists and strikers her from behind. She reels forward, but recovers her feet quickly and orbs across the room. The original demon shimmers right behind and swings a punch. Pheobe is quicker, and ducks and spins around, kicking him to the side. She orbs again, standing this time in the center of the room. The copy is quicker though and connects his swing this time, knocking Paige on the head with a double fisted blow. She crumples to the ground.

The original shimmers to the center of the room and absorbs his copy. He grins and bends to the ground to pick up a shard of glass. "Time to die witch. Slowly."

James is creeping across the empty rim of the chandelier. From his view, the world looms large, and he hovers miles above the demon. The wire rim shakes beneath him, and the crouches low as he moves into just the right position. As the demon straightens, he leaps, growing as he falls and his full wight collapses on the demon. He wrestles with him on the ground for a moment, and holds tightly to the shard in the demons hand. The demon attempts to pull it up to slash James with it, but he retains enough control to direct the movement to slash the demon's face instead. The demon howls and drops the shard. Hot blood flows from a gash across his protruding forehead, white blood. The demon frenzies in anger and drives his arms outward. James's hold is thrown and the demon throws him backward with all his force, flinging him against the wall. James lands on the couch, his body twisted. His head reels and his vision blurs.

The demon picks up the shard, his smile menacing. His face is contorted by the blood. His would burns hot. White, blindingly so. All an onlooker would be able to see is that white gash. Whiteness. Blinding white. Only white. Blinding and white. Bright white. White light.

A father's voice can be heard, reminiscing. Mr. Brown's voice. "He came back home that evening, as he promised. He was cut and dazed. He knocked on the door and couldn't remember what happened. He looked so confused just standing there at the door, not knowing what had happened. He just asked where did he just come from and then collapsed.

"We drove him to the hospital. He had been cut and had sustained internal burns. He was hurt and would need rest. They nearly killed him, those bastards. He got out of the hospital after a few days and was fine. But he couldn't remember anything. And that was the worst.

"He couldn't remember what had happened. He passed his tests, but he didn't get any fulfillment from them like he used to. Like it just wasn't as important as what he could have been doing. He couldn't remember anything. Not the magic, not witches. They stole his magic from him. But worse, they stole his fulfillment. He couldn't enjoy anything after that again. They didn't kill him outside, but he was dead inside. That was for sure."

The voice pauses.

And then continues.

"But at least I know they got the bastard first."

The gash burns wide. James leaps towards it, shrinking as he does. He leaps right into the wound and buries himself inside the demon's head.

The door to the apartment bursts open in an explosion. Piper steps through the carnage and surveys the room.

The demon's skin begins to crack in white fire. He screams and starts tearing at his skin. The cracks grow until the demon cannot withstands the pressure. He bursts apart, his skin flying off in all directions, and James stands in his place. James drops to his knees, and then his face falls to the floor.

Piper runs towards, shouting his name. She rolls him over and listens for a heartbeat. She hears one, and notices Pheobe and Piper also sprawled across the couch and floor. She runs to Paige and starts patting her cheek.

"Paige. You've got to get up and get us out of here," she says frantically. Her pats grow harder, but Paige doesn't respond.

The enchantress Rosaline appears in the room. A flash of light trails up her body as the rest of her materializes from smoke. As she enters the room, her back faces the room and she calls out. "Oh demon? Where are you? Did you find the little witch yet?" Rosaline turns and catches Piper's eye.

"Well, this is a surprise." Piper flings her arms up to cast her explosive magic, but the pendant on her neck prevents the magic from effecting Rosaline. Rosaline quickly pulls out another white rose and throws it to the ground beneath Piper. A shield quickly encompasses her and Paige. Rosaline withdraws another dark red rose and twirls it between her fingers.

"Hopefully we can return ourselves to the same situation we had when we last met. I so do want that power of three."

"What are you doing here?"

"Asking questions are we? Well, take your time. You won't be leaving until I have your power." She turns and scans the room. Noticing James she walks over to him and toes him with her boot. "And who is this?"

"What do you want here?" repeats Piper in a forceful voice.

"Oh, just removing help before you can make use of it." She starts stroking James' face with the rose. "You see, there is a witch here which I thought could have helped you out. If I had let her live. So I had my rent-a-demon capture her for me. Imagine my surprise when I found you here instead." James' seems to be fading away as Rosaline strokes his face, but it is subtle. Piper doesn't notice as she gently puts Paige down and steps through the shield. Since its magic doesn't effect her, she slides through easily and crushes the rose in her boot.

Hearing the sound, Rosaline spins. "What are you doing to him?" shouts Piper, raising her hands again to cast magic, but failing.

"Just one more," says Rosaline and quickly strokes James' face with the rose one last time. The fading continues quickly and he disappears from the room.

Rosaline quickly whips out another rose and points it at Piper. Lighting shoots out of the bud, but it passes through Piper. She raises her hand to freeze the bolt, but it doesn't stop.

"Well, well, well," says Rosaline. "Its seems like you've learned a new trick. I can't stop you but you can't stop me. So I guess we will both retreat, with nothing much left to do here. Try again next time, I suppose." Rosaline snickers, and starts to disappear and the white spark travels up her body. At the moment she dissappears, she cackles. "Oh, and I've stolen his powers. And memory too."

Piper dives to the floor and slaps Paige awake. "Come on, we need to leave now." She drags herself over to Pheobe, and they orb away. The apartment is a shambles behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

"Yeah," he cheers, hopping up, and shrinking down in mid air. His leap takes his smaller form higher up until he alights on Paige's shoulder. "Ready? Let's go!"

Paige starts to orb as Dr. Kluger bids them Harwell with a warning. "Take it easy, Paige. You still need to rest!"

Blue lights formed around the group and their bodies lost their substance and floated away. Dr. Kluger collapsed into the chair by the desk, laid his elbows on the surface in front of him, and laid his eyes against the heels of his palms. He was tired. And too busy these days than was for the good. Crime had increased far too rapidly in the past week. There were people being wounded in gang fights as wars broke out over turf. Dr. Kluger didn't understand why there had to be so many bad things happening at once. There were sickness spreading, and the city was already in the heart of the flu season.

And here he was canceling entire day's blocks of patients to be running around with three girls. He reached across the desk and started flicking through papers. Patient forms, most stamped appointment canceled. He sighed. He wished there was more he could do. These girls were risking their lives trying to save people, literally walking into the lion's den. He didn't. He couldn't but he didn't know if he would even if he could. He had no magic, and he couldn't save as they could do. All he could do was help them, try and strike at the source of the worst evil, and then move on curing what he could. He hoped that at least helping them was doing the most good he can.

He leaned back in the chair, his face pointed to the ceiling. He closed his eyes, trying to review what could be the next task. What more could he do. The door creaked open. "Julia, we must knock before coming in here while there are guests." Dr. Kluger spun in the chair to face Julia, and was surprised to see a medium sized man in the room. "Who are you?" Dr. Kluger said, jumping out of the chair to face the man.

The man had a greasy smile on his face. He was dressed in a shiny pinstripe suit. It shone so much, it seemed to be made out of pure polyester. A wide green tie hung down a formal blue shirt. His head was mostly bald and what little hair he did have was slicked back with hairspray. He looked like a shady car dealer trying his best to impress a potential customer. As soon as Dr. Kluger got out of his chair, the man advanced and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "Now, now, now, Doctor. Please, there is no need to be so short. Do you happen to know the Haliwell sisters?"

"What do you want?"

"Doctor, I am sure that you know about the recent crime wave beginning. Its getting worse. The forces of evil are just beginning to stretch their limits, see how much Rosaline's new tricks have really worked. They aren't fully sure that Rosaline really has trapped heaven's forces, so they are just testing right now. The carnage will begin if the sisters don't stop Rosaline before everyone else really realizes what she has done."

"Who are you?"

"Oh, just a friend."

"Which side are you on?"

"Side?" He laughed. "Technically, one would say that I belong with the bad guys." He smiled his most winning smile. It wasn't too winning, especially for Dr. Kluger. "But I am, how can I say, apt to change sides easily. I'm just looking out for numero uno. Right, Dr. Kluger."

"I am asking you to leave now." Dr. Kluger got out of the chair again, but the man was quick.

"Just a moment, Doctor. You've been canceling patients all day to run around with three girls. Don't you think you could spare a moment to hear a venture that could possibly be very worth your while." Dr. Kluger looked struck, and stopped in his tracks. "Come now, you could be powerful. Imagine the revenge you could have. Or even help save even more lives." He saw the light shine in Dr. Kluger's eyes, and pressed the point. "Imagine, magic dedicated to helping lives. And you could control it. That's what I offer, Doctor. I am offering you magic."

"Who are you?"

"Oh, most would say I am greedy. So that will do. Interested?" He paused for a breath, but didn't wait for a reply. "The girls must take Rosaline out quickly. You know it. When they do, you must be there. Rosaline stores most of her power in her roses. Capture them after she is destroyed, and I will show you how to integrate their power. To use it for yourself, to save lives."

"And what do you get?"

"Oh, I would say twenty percent of the power is fair. I keep twenty, you take eighty. A fair trade, no?"

"So we destroy one monster and allow you to become another. I'm not interested."

"Think about it Doctor." He walked over to the table and pulled a sheet of paper out at random, thrusting it toward Dr. Kluger. "Remember this one. You could have saved her. And this one too," he turned to the desk, and started throwing papers at Dr. Kluger. "And another here. Magic took these lives, you could have prevented that."

"Leave now, Mr. Greedy."

"I think you will come around in the end." He held out a green business card. No writing appeared on it. "When you want to discuss this further, just look at this card. It will tell you what to do." He put the card into Dr. Kluger's hand, and turned. "Assuming of course that you actually do care about saving lives." The poison in the words was evident.

Dr. Kluger again collapsed in the chair. He watched Greedy go, his eyes weary. As Greedy opened the door again, the dam of emotions inside burst. He shouted. "What, you're taking the door out? No magic bubbles or flashes of light? That's it!"

Greedy slowly tuned and smiled. An evil smile. "Come now, Doctor." He paused, measuring the words. "I wouldn't want to rub it in your face." He laughed and walked out.

Dr. Kluger leaned back. His body seemed to shrink as he let out his angry breath. He strength waned, and his thought turned to Greedy's proposal. They didn't sit there for very long.

Blue lights shakily moved into the room, and Piper's form materialized first. She was holding up Paige, her head under Paige's arm. They rose up together from a crouch as they came into view. Pheobe lay at their feet, unconscious. Dr. Kluger leapt out of his chair and took Paige's other arm.

"Where's James," he asked, his voice urgent.

Piper shook her head. "I'll tell you everything later. Quickly, they are hurt."

The two of them started moving he barely conscious Paige to one of the beds. Paige moaned, "no, I need to heal Pheobe." She's hurt. She got thrown, far." The words trailed off and he head hung.

Dr. Kluger spoke to her softly. "You need to rest first, Paige." He heaved her into the bed, and let her eyes close. "Keep her awake until I examine her," he said to Paige.

He crouched down to look at Pheobe. The back of her shirt was covered in blood. He rolled her over, and pulled her shirt up her back. Deep cuts gouged inter back. She still bled, and some glass shards were in the wounds. He picked a few of them out. "Piper, please go ask Julia to come in her quickly. We will need to do some stitches." He looked over the rest of her and found that she had a large bump on her. Didn't feel like there was much damage or a concussion, but he would have to look into it further. Paige couldn't just heal her she was too weak herself. And he had no magic to do it with himself, dammit. His hand went to the pocket of his shirt holding the green card without him even knowing it.

The three sisters had slept the night in the back room of the clinic. In the morning, Dr. Kluger knocked lightly on the door, and walked in to wake Piper up. He let the other two sleep. His finger over his mouth, he motioned for Piper to follow him out. Once outside, he said to her, "You will want to see this." He led her to the waiting room where the television was turned on to the morning news.

A girls head was in the corned, and the newscaster was blaring out his article. "Crime has been increasing dramatically in the past week. In what is hoped to be the climax of the current wave, noted philanthropist and acclaimed aristocrat Jessica Burns was murdered last night in penthouse apartment. April O'Reilly is on the scene reporting the latest. April?"

The screen flashes to a woman standing in the hallway of an apartment building. The door to the apartment behind her has been destroyed, literally blown off its hinges. Police tape cross the entrance, preventing access. "I am here at the late Jessica Burns' apartment in suburban San Fransisco. The police are currently baffled as to the culprit of this most heinous crime. The door to the apartment, as you can see, was literally exploded before the murders gained access to the apartment. The apartment inside is a mess, and it is quite clear that a large struggle occurred before Jessica was forced to give up her life." Pictures on the screen flash of the destroyed living room and hanging chandelier. "The police suspect that the weapon used was kitchen knife found in the dumpster outside with the victim's blood on it. Signs of burns are expected to have come from other explosives used by the culprit once inside the apartment. No fingerprints have been found, and the identity of the culprit is not yet known. Nothing appears to have been stolen.

"The police are issuing the following guidelines to the general public..." Dr. Kluger turned the volume down on he Tv until it was silent.

Piper spoke up to fill the void. "Now the world knows."

"They do. They won't connect it though."

"Rosaline did this." She smiled for a moment. "Well, except the doors. I did that." The smile left her immediately. "She must be stopped."

"Agreed." His hand went to his jacket again.

Around muffins in the conference room, Pheobe happily munched on a muffin. "How are you feeling?" Dr. Kluger asked.

"Great, thanks. How is Paige?"

"She needs the rest. When she wakes up, she will be able to heal you better. Until then, I think she needs to not be disturbed."

"What's next?" Pheobe asked Piper.

"Next, we take back our house. I don't want Rosaline to have anything of ours anymore. We sisters are going to stand together. And then we are going to take Rosaline out."

Rosaline was sitting in a tall chair in her cavern lair. She toyed with a rose in her hand, stroking the petals. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth part slightly in pleasure. After a long stroke of the rose, her eyes opened and she sighed. "Wonderful memories. I shall surely find a use for them." She put the rose down on a table behind. Sharing the table was a large leather book. Embossed on its cover was a golden blossoming rose.

"They must surely be done by now," she said, her voice rising to accent her frustration at the time. "How long can they take to deliberate. I will go and speed the process along. Now." A white light flashed and climbed along her body as she faded into smoke.

She reappeared a moment later in a cave. Heavy burnished double doors blocked the entrance to the deeper portion of the cavern. The doors were marked in copper with a dark ball pierced by a nail. Two large guards, their appearance almost identical, flanked the doors. Each was dressed in leather armor and carried halberds in their arms. As Rosaline walked forward, the guards intoned. "You may not enter.

Wait until the council has completed."

"I will not wait." She reached into her pocket and the leather armor creaked as the guards tensed themselves.

Before a spell could be cast, the door split and Greedy walked through them. Quickly, her closed the doors behind him and turned to leave. Spinning, he saw Rosaline standing before him. "Ah, Rosaline. Good, now that you are here, I won't have to go to you."

"What does the council say?"

"They do not believe in your claim. They will not accept your claim until you can prove that you have indeed captured Heaven's forces. Your dema--request is denied."

"What?" He face turned red with rage, and she quickly withdrew a rose from her pocket. Brandishing it towards Greedy, lighting leapt out of it striking his legs. "They will not defy me!"

Greedy jumped back as the lighting struck him. He collapsed backwards into a heap. The guards lept to action quickly and rushed towards Rosaline. She quickly motioned the rose wand to the earthen floor beneath them. The guards quickly found themselves literally tapped in the ground as the earth reached up, forming hands, clasping their legs tightly. The guards strained themselves to go free, but found that their strength could not snap stone

"Now then, worm." She again raised the wand to Greedy. "You will go back there and you will repeat my demands. Let them test my victories for themselves if they want."

Greedy merely looked at her. The guards relaxed their pose, held their halberds to their chests and folded their arms. "Guards," said Greedy.

The guards intoned a single word. "Begone." The word felt dark and echoed through the chamber. A ball of black ink exploded in front of Rosaline. The ball quickly expanded until it consumed Rosaline's form. Once it grew to fill the chamber where she stood, it continued to grow, dissipating like smoke as it continued. Quickly, the ball faded away and Rosaline was gone. Greedy got up, dusted off his suit, and cursed the enchantress before reentering the door.

The blue sedan pulled up the Haliwell manor. Dr. Kluger parked the car and he, Paige, and Pheobe piled out. Paige bounded up the pathway to the house. "Looks just like we left it." The manor was basically untouched. Most of the windows had their curtains drawn, but the windows to the kitchen were all clear. The sun was out and shone brightly making the inside of the manor appear dark and ominous.

"This is your house?" asked Dr. Kluger, walking next to Piper.

She shook her head. "Yes. I doubt if there will be much trouble her, but just wait right outside until you know everything is fine. OK?"

"I'll help as I can."

Pheobe arrived at the door first and fit the key into the lock. Piper walked up beside her and Dr. Kluger sat down on the wooden swinging bench outside the door. Pheobe hesitantly pushed open the door and crossed the threshold.

The inside of the house seemed dark and dusty compared to the beautiful day outside. Pheobe walked a few more steps inside, scanning the room. Glass cracked at her feet and she looked down. A glass vial was broken on the floor and a dead and decomposing rose lay by its side. Pheobe bent down and touched the vial. Immediately, she was assaulted by a vision.

The room was dark night had set outside. In the dark, she could recognize the couch in the living room. It had been tumbled over and a woman straddled it, one foot on the floor and one foot on the turned over seat. "Surprised to see that they live here in a house like this?" She sounded angry and frustrated.

A slight hissing sound was sounding in the room, like air being let out of a balloon. Another woman was standing by the darkened window. She seemed to be leaning on something, but nothing was visible. Her voice was much higher. If not more easily cheered, than at least she was in awe of her current situation. "Yes. Its so beautiful."

"Yes, it is. But I think its the power of the place that attracted them. Do you feel it, the nexus of power. Our own coven doesn't generate so much strength."

"Yes, it must be a powerful and long family to have inherited such a--"

"Quiet." The woman's angry voiced pierced the air. The hissing noise had quit. "There, that's the end of the traps."

"They were very poorly set. Most didn't even trigger when we arrived."

"Aye. For someone so powerful, I would expect their aim to be better."

"What now?"

"We wait. When they arrive. We will kill the murderers. We will have vengeance."

The vision ended and Pheobe shocked herself back awake. Piper walked in the door behind her, and Pheobe lept up and tried to push Piper back outside. "Look out," she shouted.

A vial crashed at their feet and shattered. A thick fog poured out of the remnants until the room was clouded in a veil of smoke. Pheobe could barely see the door in front of them. The light pouring in from it shone even in the cloud. Quickly she grabbed Piper's hand and dashed for the door. And then the door closed with a slam.

A person whizzed by them, breaking the contact between the sisters. "Piper," Pheobe shouted, and Piper called her name back.

"Murderers," the heavy voiced woman cried from somewhere in the room. Pheobe suddenly felt herself being assaulted. She could only see a silhouette of a person rushing towards her, as if they were riding a skateboard through her house. At each pass of the silhouette, a fist struck out and slammed against her. She cried out and attempted to find the culprit, but the smoke prevented her from following the shadow. She could hear Piper undergoing a similar tussle.

Pheobe managed to collect herself through the blows to attempt to watch the motions of her attacker. After another two strikes, she predicted where the woman would come from, and was ready for the next pass. As the woman came by again, Pheobe sidestepped the move, and spun her leg out and around. The woman let out a cry as Pheobe locked her in a leg hold. Spinning quickly, Pheobe funneled her momentum to rocket the woman away from her towards one of the walls in the room.

Dr. Kluger was sitting outside on the bench. The green card was in his hand, and he was turning it over. suddenly, black letters flowed down the card to read in a calligraphic script: "Incoming."

Dr. Kluger looked at it, puzzled. "Huh?" Suddenly the door burst open with a bang and a woman tumbled out of it. Dr. Kluger lept out of his chair to halt the woman's roll, and managed to stand in front of her so that he grabbed her legs as she rolled into him. She stopped flat on her back, and Dr. Kluger released her as soon as she had stopped moving. Her legs flopped to the ground. She was a blonde, and her hair was a mess, covering half of her face. She blew the hair out of her face before talking to Dr. Kluger. "Thanks, Mister. Who are you?"

"Dr. Kluger, a guest of the residents. And may I ask, who are you?"

"A guest?" She rolled quickly to her feet, and assumed a boxing stance. "Are you with them?"

Dr. Kluger smiled. The girl in front of him was probably only in his twenties, and he didn't know how fit or trained she was to actually fight him. More than likely, he looked like an old man who wasn't going to go down easily. "Hold it, please," he said, raising his arms in peace. "What is going on?"

"Look, you answer my questions and then I will hear your's. If I like your answers. Are you with them?" Her face and tone were clearly angry.

Dr. Kluger sat down on the swing again. "Look young lady. I don't know what the problem is her. But I have been the doctor of the owners of this mansion to know that they are lovely ladies and who positively seek out good. Do you even know who they are?"

She put down her fists, but didn't relax. "No, all I know is that they hurt someone very close to me. If you are with them--"

"Impossible. The Haliwells wouldn't do that."

"They did! We saw it last night and tracked them."

"They were with me last night, all three--" Recognition passed over Dr. Kluger's face. "You tracked their magic, you mean." Her face drooped. "You tracked the Haliwell's magic to its home from Jessica's apartment! You knew Jessica."

"Who are you really?"

"I really am Dr. Kluger, a friend of the sisters. And if you'll tell me your name and sit down here, I can explain to you exactly what happened last night."

Pheobe heard a crash and the light of the door again shone into the room. Pheobe started to head towards it when the other woman's voice sounded again. "Enough!" A vial cracked in the floor beneath Pheobe's feet and the fog started to thicken. Pheobe felt like she was moving through slush. She has to fight to move. When she heard another vial whizz through the air, she started to scream to Piper, but time stopped before she needed to.

"Pheobe, where are you?"

"I am here. Its hard to move through the fog."

"I'm coming."

A hand reached through the fog, and Pheobe grasped it. Piper started to tug and Pheobe pushed forward through the thick fog. Each groaned with the strain. In a moment, Pheobe felt as if all of her but her leg was free. It sounded like a cork had popped off a bottle of champagne and then the fog started lightening. Pheobe and Piper tumbled forward as the fog lifted and their vision cleared. The blonde was standing in the doorway holding a vial. The fog was flowing into it. Dr. Kluger walked around her and entered the room. "Hello Piper, Pheobe," he said, addressing them on the floor. "This is Eliazabeth."

"Eli," she corrected, as the fog cleared to reveal the form of their other attacker frozen in the middle of the room. "Dreadfully sorry about all this but it seems like a mistake has been made," she said sheepishly. "Would you just maybe mind just letting Cassandra go?"

Dr. Kluger and Pheobe are sitting in the couch in the main room and Piper walks out of the kitchen carrying a pitcher and some glasses on a tray. Cassandra turns from the window and takes a glass and Piper pours herself a drink. Eli is still standing, again leaning n something that no one can see. It seems to be nearly as tall as her, and her arms are folded over the top of it like a snowboarder leaning on his board. Piper pours out a few more glasses and hands them around the room.

"So how do you intend to catch Rosaline," Eli says.

"Well," Pheobe replies. "We don't fully know yet. Any suggestions?"

Cassandra returns to looking out the window. "We cannot return to Jessica's apartment and track her from there. We must find another method."

"How did you know Jessica?" Piper asks.

Eli answers. "We were from the same coven. We are friends, and have been for...well, a while. Our friendship only deepened once we learned that we could do, well, magic stuff."

Cassandra continues. "We will not allow her murder to go unrevenged."

"And how do you intend to do that?" asks Piper. "Do you have any powers or anything? She is very powerful."

"Well," says Eli. "I have my board." She throws down the invisible board on the ground and hops on. With a push from her leg, she starts gliding around the room. "She never catch me." She glides back to where she was standing, and kicks her board up.

"We have our potions. She won't be able to win."

"Great," says Piper, exasperated. "A magic board and a couple of potions against a woman armed to the teeth with weapons coming from a long line of powerful enchantresses."

"Please," begs Pheobe. "Rosaline is very powerful. I understand that you have suffered a loss, but you can't do this alone."

Cassandra cuts her off. "We can. And we will take her down. She is going to pay for the pain she has caused."

"Yes, Jessica will be avenged. She was my friend, too."

"She was not your friend. You've known her for a few days. We've known her years! A lifetime! Her blood demands vengeance."

"Stop it Cassandra. Don't let your thirst for blood make you run into a mistake. You can't avenge her if you are dead."

"I won't fail. Come on, Eli. We're leaving."

"No, Cassandra. Please, listen. At the very least, lets team up against her. We can get the most done that way. Just wait, we have to move forward with planning."

"No, Pheobe. We leave now. We hunt now." She turned to Eli, and reached out. "Eli, come."

Eli glided over on her board and stood next to Cassandra. "Sorry Pheobe." Cassandra threw a vial to the floor and puff of smoke erupted form it. "We need to go after Rosaline. And we're going now." She looked almost sad as the cloud seemed to draw them into before consuming itself and disappearing.

"What now?" Pheobe asked Piper.

"I don't know. We have to get to Rosaline before those two though. They will die if they take her on alone. Can we scry?"

"We can try. I'll go get the crystal."

Dr. Kluger was pacing outside on the porch. In his hand was the green card. His eyes were focused on the blank paper. "Dammit, Greedy . Where are you?"

Words appeared on the paper suddenly, reading "Drop me." Dr. Kluger looked at it. "What? This is the contact information?" He held the card for a moment more before it began to shake. Dr. Kluger dropped it quickly with a jolt and stepped back. The piece of paper floated to the ground, growing larger as it fell. By the time it had landed, it was the size of a circle about two feet wide. The surface of the paper rippled, and Mr Greedy shot up out of the circle. At first, his body was pure green, but quickly reverted to its normal color.

"Are you ready to accept the deal?"

"We agree at least that Rosaline needs to be stopped. How can we find her?"

Greedy clicked his tongue. "Do we have a deal or not?"

"I'm not allowing you to get any more power than you already have."

"You want it. Paige is still unconscious because you can't heal her. Rosaline could, if you had her powers. She could save those other two fools who are headed towards their death. Come now, Dr. Kluger, in fact, you probably could have saved your daughter--"

Dr. Kluger advanced on him quickly and slapped him against the face. Greedy reeled with the blow. "Don't you dare bring her up! She died because she believed in saving lives. All lives! You care only about yourself!"

"Then honor her memory, Doctor! She wanted to save lives no matter what the cause! You have in front of you the chance to gain such power, you would be unstoppable. Hell, you could dress up in tights, plaster an S across your chest, and no one would look at your crosswise. Doctor, I will tell you again, no matter who stops her, someone will stop her eventually. And when they do, those powers will be up for grabs. Someone will have them. May as well let it be a superhero like yourself." Greedy wrapped his arms around Doctor Kluger's shoulders. Dr. Kluger's head was drooped. Greedy patted his chest. "Come now, don't pass up on it."

He sighed. "Fine. Its a deal."

"Great. I promise. We will both benefit from this."

"Now, how can we find her? The girl's scrying isn't working, and they don't know how to track her or where to begin."

"They can follow a regular person though, right, if they are shown the way? I believe that its in their Book of Shadows?"

"I don't know. They mentioned this Shadow Book though. I didn't see it."

"I doubt you would have. Long family lines have books. They don't like to share too much." Greedy rubbed his bare chin. "I'll see what I can rig up." He started to disappear the same way he had come, diving down into a green pool. "Don't worry, Doctor. We're a team now." Dr. Kluger sighed and walked back into the house.

Pheobe is sitting over a map, waving a crystal hanging from a chain over the map. Nothing happens, but Pheobe continues to watch it as she speaks to Dr. Kluger. "How's Paige?"

"Julia says that she is fine. She woke up for a few moments, long enough for Julia to ask her how she is feeling. She said she was tired and achy, but otherwise well. She will probably be feeling up to her normal self tonight."

Pheobe sighed. "I hope she feels better soon. We could use her help here."

"I know. But we will have to make do with what we can. Have you found anything?"

"No, nothing. I doubted I would be able to find Rosaline though."

"Have you tried looking for Cassandra or Eli?"

"Hmm," replied Pheobe, pondering the idea.

Piper bounded down the stairs. "There wasn't an entry in the Book of Shadows about Rosaline, but there was about her family. All it says is that she is from the family Bavordel. The Book says that it is originally a German line of enchantresses. They pass their magic down from mother to daughter. To ensure that no generation goes without the gift, they developed the custom to tie much of their power to roses and hand those down. The custom has grown stronger over the generations.

"And check this out, they've got a Book too?"

"A book," replied Pheobe. "What do you mean?"

"Not just a book, a Book. Like the Book of Shadows. Their's is called the Book of Beauty."

"All of this is nice," interrupted Dr. Kluger. "But where does it leave us?"

"Nowhere. The Book doesn't list anything about a specific person, where they might be, or spells keyed to them. Nothing else other than general history."

"Well," suggested Pheobe. "Dr. Kluger had an idea. Why don't we try to find Cassandra or Eli? I'm sure that if we work together, we will be able to find her quicker."

"Good, and we can keep those two from killing themselves while they are at it. Where do we start?"

"I know where their coven is located. In a park. You driving, Doctor?"

Rosaline dragged a rose across the table. As she dragged the rose, a path of white sand was left behind like a pencil's lead on paper. She moved the line until it formed a triangle. At the three corners, she drew a circle. She then took the rose and held it in the middle of the triangle, as still as a plumb line. She grasped it between her two palms and started rubbing the palls. The rose spun, turning from a red to a light blue. As it spun, the sand started falling out, taking a blue tint. After a small pile was formed, Rosaline threw her hands backwards and the rose fell into the pile and sand and went through it. The rose disappeared into the sand until the end of the stem and the sand flowed outwards. As it shimmered across the triangle, it appeared like a pool of sand. Rosaline peered into it and smiled. She walked around to the other side of the table and made a few markings in an open book with a quill pen. She then slammed the book shut, and triumphantly proclaimed "I've done it".

She pulled the rose out of the pile of sand and the pool ceased shimmering. She placed the rose back in her pockets, and slammed an open hand on the table. "Greedy, I summon you." A flash of light responded from behind her, and Greedy appeared behind her.

He glared at her back. She started to turn around, and he turned his face to serenity. Or at least impassivity. "What is it you want?" he asked.

"I have the proof. I will present it to the council without further delays. Relay the message to the council immediately."

"Rosaline, there are procedures to be followed. Just a moment." He reached into his jacket and withdrew a small piece of paper. He held it in one hand, and flicked it down like unfurling a roll of parchment. At the same moment, he dropped with his other hand a green card on the ground. When he flicked the small piece of paper, it grew into a full piece of parchment. Pointing at it, a quill grew in his hands and he took it up. "What is your request?"

"To present the requisite proof of power to the council. Immediately, Greedy. Immediately."

"As soon as possible. But what is that you are requesting from the council?"

"We've gone through this Greedy," she said through gritted teeth. "I will not bear my humiliation again."

"I am sorry Rosaline, but the case must be referred to as the session begins again. What is your request from the council?"

"For the witches curse on my womb to be removed. For me to be able to give birth to my daughter and heir."

"And your reason for why the council should give you this boon?"

"For my accomplishment in trapping the Heaven's Forces."

"And the purpose of the requested session?"

"To present the requisite evidence of my accomplishment. Enough, Greed--"

"Quite right, my lady. Enough. I've been her longer than I wish." He rolled the parchment up, and it again reverted to a sheet of paper no larger than an index card. He put that into his pocket. "Guards," he called out. Immediately, his form started to turn black and translucent and he faded away.

Rosaline called after him. "An hour, Greedy. I want word back in a hour. Or I will come for you!"

Greedy reappeared in the antechamber of the council. "Or the reverse," he said.

Dr. Kluger and the sisters walked through the trees. Dr. Kluger reached into his pocket and withdrew Greedy's green card. There were words written on it. "All done."

"What's that?" asked Pheobe.

"Nothing. Are we there?"

"Just ahead."

The rounded around a final copse of tree and came to a clearing. A bird bath was standing between some trees. The water of the birdbath overflowed and poured down some groves in the rim of the bowl. The water dripped on the grassy floor and was absorbed into the ground. A blonde woman was sitting on the ground, her head wrapped in an arm and leaning against a dry side of the bird bath. "Eli?" called out Pheobe.

Eli looked up at her with a tear stained face. "Its so peaceful here normally. But now I just cannot enjoy it."

Pheobe sat down next to her and held her. "What's wrong?"

"Cassandra's gone," she said through tears. Her voice was quiet and sad. Not at all the happy voice Pheobe was used to hearing. "A man came. If he was a demon, he was a professional one, dressed in a pinstripe suit. I saw him tell her that if she wants revenge, she should come now. They both disappeared, and then he came back alone. I was too late to catch Cassandra, but he knew I was coming. He waited on me to arrive, just standing there. I tried to attack him with my board, but he just faded away. His words still sounded though. 'If you want to save her, follow her.'" She broke out into tears.

Pheobe tried comforting her. "Its alright honey, we'll go after her together. Come on, get up." She rose up to her feet, attempting to pull Eli up. Like a dead weight, Eli allowed herself to be dragged to her feet, but she just hung there limp.

"You were right. We can't do it alone. We need you guys. There's nothing I can do."

"That's ridiculous," Pheobe said. "We are going to help each other, right? Come on, get over it. We need to go after Cassandra."

"But how? You can't get there, or you wouldn't be here. And I can't get there either. Its hopeless!" She started sniffing again.

"Enough of this, young lady," Dr. Kluger spoke forcefully. "Listen to me. You said that you had a spell that could track magic right? Well use it, my dear."

"I can't! Cassandra was always better at potions than me. At anything than me. All I have is my board... And her."

"Now stop this. Eli, you know me. I know you can do this. You can make the magic you need to save Cassandra. Only you."

"How do you know I can?"

"A father's intuition."

"You're not my father."

"No, I'm not, but I am a father. or would have been. If my daughter had still been alive, she would only have been a few years older than you. Well, maybe more than a few." He tried to catch Eli's eyes with a smile, but it didn't reach. "She always tried her hardest to do whatever she could. She always helped those in pain. I know you can do it too. Just believe in yourself, we do."

"What happened to her?"

"Who?"

"Your daughter."

"That isn't a story for now. Your story is playing out now. Come on, Eli, we need you to make that potion. Can you do it?"

She took a deep breath before answering. "I think so."

"Good. I know you can."

In the manor kitchen, Eli pours out a measured amount of clear liquid into two vials. In one of the vials, she shakes it around up and down, and the liquid turns purple. She shakes the other around in a circle, and it turns black. "The purple one is for following. Cassandra called it a tunnel tracker. We throw it down and it takes us to the source of the magic. Kind of like burrowing a tunnel through their magic trail. This one is for returning. We throw it down and we come back here. They should work."

Piper held out another two bottle. "We should each carry a return spell. Safer that way."

"Good plan," Eli said, taking the bottles and treating them the same.

Dr. Kluger, who was watching the preparations, spoke up. "You need four returns then, one for me?"

"What?" said Piper, incredulous.

"Yes, I am coming."

"Why? We don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry, Doctor, and we thank you for all the help you've given us so far. But you can't come with us. Its too dangerous. Rosaline is very powerful, and you don't have any magic. You must stay here. Its for your own good." Before he had a chance to speak, Piper turned to Eli. "Are they done?"

"Yes, Piper."

"Good." She held out her hand and Eli put two return vials into her open palm. She handed one to Pheobe. "Let's go." She said. Eli threw bottle to the ground and a puff of smoke blew out of the bottle In an instant, they shrank into the cloud.

The group appeared in Rosaline lair. Rosaline had her attention focused elsewhere as they appeared in. Cassandra was hanging by her arms. Two vines were holding her from the ceiling by her wrists. A slash was cut against her cheek. "Foolish witch," Rosaline was saying. "What good are your potions if you have no hands to use them."

"Let her go!" shouted Piper, throwing her hands up to cast her explosive magic towards the vines. But nothing happened. Rosaline turned towards them

"Ah, the Charmed Ones have arrived. Welcome to my abode," she said with a curtsy before thrusting a rose towards them. Lighting jumped from the tip of the rose, but it passed harmlessly through Piper.

"It seems we have a stalemate again, Charmed One." Piper threw her hand towards the pendant still hanging from her neck. "What a shame? Well, if that's the rules, then lets play. You can't touch me, I can't touch you." She pointed her rose towards the hanging Cassandra. The vines around her wrists her wrist started to climb down her arms, constricting around her flesh. A drop of blood raced down her arm. Cassandra jerked and whistled through clamped teeth.

"Stop it!" shouted Eli. "You're hurting her!"

"Throw away your shield, Charmed One. Lets even the playing ground. I have always so wanted to challenge another family as old as mine." She smiled. "I'll even make you a deal. You get first move. First spell is your's to cast, and then the battle truly begins. Of course, I would suggest using that spell to save your friend here." The vines tightened even further and Cassandra jerked hard and cried out in pain.

"Damn you," Piper said. She grabbed the pendant off her neck and ripped it loose. She could hear Pheobe behind her do the same. "Ready?" she called out. Quickly, she threw her hands up and quickly exploded the vine holding Cassandra. Cassandra fell to the floor hard with a thump. As soon as Piper cast her magic, Rosaline pointed at the floor below Casandra's falling body. Hands of earth grew from the ground and grabbed Cassandra, holding her steadfast to the floor.

Rosaline spun to the others and lanced out with another lighting bolt. The others scattered: Piper leaped to the side and Eli took off on her magic board. Pheobe activated her high jump and leapt over the bolt, her feet headed straight for Rosaline.

"Damn," cursed Dr. Kluger as the group disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Now what?" He withdrew the card from his pocket. Words were written on it reading:

Left behind?

Drop me.

Dr. Kluger immediately dropped the card and it again grew into a puddle from which Greedy walked out of. "What happened? You were supposed to go with them!"

"They wouldn't take me! Where have you taken Cassandra?"

"That's none of your business, but I really did take her to Rosaline. She wanted it, her vengeance and all. But now she is serving the bait."

"Take me there."

"What? That's not in the deal. You were supposed to get there yourself, tagging along with the witches."

"You want your powers? Take me there. I know you can, you took Cassandra."

"Fine. But the deals is rapidly growing thin. I can't be held accountable for what happens now."

"Let's go. Quickly." He stepped forward and they both walked into the green circle left by the card before collapsing down into like falling into a pool of water.

Pheobe's kick headed straight for Rosaline. Rosaline held the rose level in one hand and the rose grew instantly to a full sized staff. A thick vine now formed most of the staff's height with a giant rose finalizing the flourish. Rosaline started to spin it quickly, but Pheobe landed a good kick to her side before she could get it moving very quickly. Rosaline rolled with the kick to the side and kept on rolling. Stopping only a few feet away from where Pheobe was standing, she pounded the ground with a fist and earthen hands grabbed at Pheobe's feet.

Eli rushed by on her board while Pheobe went flying towards Rosaline. She quickly went over towards Cassandra. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but I can't move. Quickly. Take the potions off my belt. Two there are good ones. Use those against her. Go, go." Eli reached through the earthen hands and pulled two vials off Cassandra's belt, one a deep red and the other a gray.

Before the hands had finished grabbing at Pheobe, Rosaline leapt up quickly and rushed at Piper. Once, twice and again, Piper threw her hands up, but only small pieces of the staff flew away. As Rosaline charged Piper, she started spinning the staff. Piper threw her hands up once again, intending this time to freeze time. Time froze for a moment, before a bubble of air seemed to collapse into the spinning staff and time resumed. Rosaline finished her spin and thrust the staff toward Piper. The bubble of air shot out of the staff, and Piper was flung backwards. Rosaline took the staff and held it upright. She then banged on the ground with her staff's bottom twice. Earthen hands formed out of the wall to catch Piper, taking care to hold her hands at her sides.

Eli rushed by on her board and made a grab at Rosaline's staff. She managed to rip it away from Rosaline and dashed around the room. Rosaline pointed at it and said the word "Thorns". Eli cried out and dropped the staff. Looking at her hand, she saw a cut across her palm. Gritting herself against the pain in the wound, she soared back towards Rosaline and threw the red vial to her feet. A circle of fire blossomed around Rosaline and then flared upwards in pillars. The pillars started to spin, trapping Rosaline in their fiery fury.

Eli raced towards Pheobe and started trying to pull away the hands from her feet by one of the fingers. Rosaline watched them. "Nice trick, witch. But you forgot, I can just--" with a flash of light, she dissapeared from between the flames and reappeared by her staff. "--teleport."

She bent down to pick up her staff and then pointed it forward at Eli. "Watch out!" Pheobe shouted at Eli, and Eli leapt up and back onto her board. Vines started to emanated from the staff and creeped across the room. Eli raced back towards Rosaline and again flipped out the gray potion. It left her hand just as a vine went taut as a tripwire. She tumbled over it to the ground and didn't get back up. The vial hit Rosaline square in the chest and a patch of sticky fog covered her upper body. She doubled over, leaning on her staff and started coughing.

Greedy and Dr. Kluger popped out of a green pool behind the Enchantress. As soon as Greedy came out, he quickly looked around before whispering in Dr. Kluger's ear. "There she is, the evil enchantress. We must kill her now."

"But that was the sister's job to do. You said so."

"They failed. Look around the room. You are the last hope. She is going to kill everyone here if you don't kill her now. You know so. She killed Jessica. She is a killer." He withdrew a curved dagger from his jacket and placed it in Dr. Kluger's hand, closing his fingers around it. "Quickly, before she recovers. Kill her." He led Dr. Kluger forward with a gentle push, and Dr. Kluger continued walking forward with quiet steps. He approached Rosaline's hunched back while she was still coughing and raised his knife.

"Time to pay for your sins, evil one." He slammed the knife in her back and Rosaline froze. He threw the knife down a second and third time, and blood poured from the wounds. After he withdrew the knife on the third time, Rosaline slumped over on the floor.

"Now come, Doctor! Claim you prize," Greedy proclaimed. He was standing beside the stack of roses in one corner of the room. "Come! In accord with our deal, I will now enable you to claim the magic you have longed after!"

"No," shouted Piper. "Dr. Kluger, stop! Don't listen to him!"

"He can't hear you," said Greedy in a sing song and victorious voice. "I've only got one power, and I am making good use of it. Well, until now, I only had one." He held the doctors hand and touched it to the pile of roses. "Ready, Doctor?"

"I am."

"Good." He clamped down on the doctors hand and the doctor's hand glowed yellow for a moment and then it faded. Dr. Kluger clenched his hand to his stomach and cried out in pain. Greedy let go of his hand and he collapsed to the ground.

"What are you doing to me?"

"Oh nothing, Doctor. I'm sorry, but our deal is officially broken." He turned to the rose and raised his hand drawing in their power. "It will be about time that I get some respect!" He turned again to Dr. Kluger. He staggered up, clutching his stomach and leaning on the cave wall. Greedy approached him and held his head up by his chin. "And its all thanks to you, dear Doctor. That's the irony of it all." Dr. Kluger winced as Greedy shook his face. "You don't get it? Watch!" He raised a hand towards Rosaline's fallen body. A vine sprouted a grabbed Rosaline's arm and neck. She was lifted into the air and hang, her arms spread out to the side. Her figure resembled that of the white lighter hanging in her lair not too long ago.

Dr. Kluger turned to follow Greedy's hand. He followed the rise of the body and watched as she was lifted. And then a rose vine grabbed Rosaline's head and lifted it. And for the first time, Dr. Kluger's eyes rested on Rosaline's face. "Meredith!" He shouted and clambered over to her. The vines shrank and Rosaline fell to the ground and lay still on her back. He collapsed over her body. He took her face in his hands and cupped her cheeks gently. A tear dropped from his eyes onto her cheek. "Meredith, my daughter. What has happened?"

"Greetings, beholder of the Bavordel legacy." She spoke weakly. "Hello, father. I'm sorry."

"Don't you understand, dear Doctor?" Greedy walked around the room, basking in his power while he continued to absorb and processed it. "You married and birthed Bavordel witches and never realized you lived among them. You see, you had the key. After the last witch dies, you are the only one who had any chance of redeeming their power. You and you alone. And I used you. I had you open the power of these roses and then I stepped in and usurped them from you."

"Greedy," Cassandra shouted from the floor. "you're twisted."

"No, I'm genius, my dear Cassandra. Ive been using all of you the entire time. The council for my demon clan determined that I had only one power: to increase the desire of a person until it blinds them to everything else. And even with that alone, I couldn't even use it until the victim agreed to join me. Be employed by me, whatever. But I needed them to agree to me before it worked. They thought I was the weakest demon, worthy of serving as only a messenger boy. And so for hundreds of years. Until I met dear Rosaline!

"She had been a bad girl. She may have turned over a new leaf, but her legacy of pain preceded her. Someone had gotten too angry at her and wanted revenge. I found them and turned their want into blinding desire. They cursed Rosaline's womb. Prevented from continuing her legacy and with no one to turn to, she started building her powers, and then the real fun begins. I found her and built her desire to continue the Bevordel lineage. And then I connected her with the council and offered the cure. And then I needed her dead. So I got the Charmed Ones to take her down."

Greedy paused and walked over to Cassandra's restrained form. He laid a foot on top of her and leaned down on his leg. His face stared straight into her face. "And I needed a big red arrow to take them to her. So I killed Jessica and inflamed your desire for vengeance." She spit throw the earthen hands at him. He ducked backwards and clicked his tongue. "You know what they say about spitting in the air."

Rosaline shouted as loud as she could manage. "The council will hunt you down for this broach--"

He interrupted. "The council knows nothing, Rosaline. Thats the genius. I couldn't risk them wanting their powers for yourself. Or worse, actually granting your appeal." He smiled at her. "Just another of my tricks. I've got plenty of them. More now that I have your powers."

"My own powers are not yet fully consumed, Greedy." She raised a limp fist, and whispered to Dr. Kluger. "I'm sorry, father. I have never killed before." She dropped her fist on the ground and uttered a spell. "Death comes to us all." The ground began to shake.

Dust flaked in the air. Dr. Kluger threw his body over his daughter and the ground rumbled. Greedy hunkered down to keep his balance. And then, as quickly as the ground shake started, it ended. Greedy rose up and laughed. "That's it, Rosaline? The last of it? I must nearly have all of your powers now. Another moment and--"

A vial cracked against his back and fire began to burn at his feet. Greedy screamed out in pain. The fire burned larger and Cassandra walked into view, free from her encumberment. "We had a deal greedy." She threw another glass at him and the fire doubled in intensity. "I told you I would have vengeance." Greedy screamed and exploded into flames.

Dr. Kluger sighed in relief. Rosaline spoke to him softly. "You should feel at ease now, father. The Bavordel legacy is yours now."

He cried and cupped her face again, kneeling in front her. "Quickly, daughter. Which power do you have to heal? I can heal you."

"Be at ease. I have lived a life that I do not wish to live further. I am too far gone for magiks now."

"Daughter, please don't."

"Yes, father. From when I left you, from when I hid away, I have hurt many people. I tried to change that by leading a life of healing. But it seems that it was too hard for me to keep up, to change the nature my mother instilled within me. I doubt I could have done as much as I did without your wise guidance, father." He closed his eyes and put his forehead against hers. They rested that way for a moment, before she spoke again.

"Please, father, I have a last request. Take a rose, you know which. Take my memories from me before I die. And raise another daughter. Continue the legacy of an elder family, but change it for good. I doubt that the Bavordel legacy could be transformed by anyone other than you."

"I cannot. Please do not ask it of me."

"Please. It has been tradition for many generations. To pass down wisdom is more important than power. Please father, let my legacy live." A tear passed from his eyes and landed on her cheek. "Quickly, please. I will speak no more."

Quietly, Dr. Kluger arose and withdrew a pure white rose from the pile. He stroked it once against his peaceful daughter's face and she started to fade away. Another tear fell on her bodice. Another stroke and again, and the tear landed on stone ground only.

Dr. Kluger sniffed and clutched the rose closely. A moment passed before Pheobe spoke up. "I'm sorry for interrupting, Dr. Kluger, but could you maybe let us out now?"

He turned to her, his face hollow and sad. She gave him a smile and a sheepish wave stretching a leg forward. He put on a smile over his sad face and spoke. "Let's do better than that. Lets go home." He held out a hand and snapped. Pheobe in a flash of light and smoke dissapeard from the room. He turned around the room, snapping once for Piper, Cassandra, and Eli.

In the silence of the chamber, he walked over to the table. On it lay the leather bound book with the tooled rose on front. He ran a finger over it. He already knew its name. The Book of Beauty. He picked it up and put it under one arm. With the other, he snapped his finger and dissapeared.

Piper walked out of the kitchen, her hands covered in cooking mittens. She was carrying a large tray. Eli was standing at the table with a party horn in her mouth. Cassandra, Paige, and Pheobe were in chairs or standing around the room watching Piper come in. Streamers and balloons decorated the room. Dr. Kluger was sitting in a big armchair, the Book of Beauty resting in his lap. Piper dodged around the assembled and laid the tray bearing a hot chocolate cake on the table. "Ok, Leo," she called out. "You can come in now."

Blue lights hovered into the room and Leo's form materialized. Eli blew her horn, and the other girls called out "Welcome home Leo." He smiled and walked over to his wife to give her a hug.

Turning to the group, he said, "Its good to be back. And I speak for all of us up there when I say that."

He walked over to Dr. Kluger in his armchair. As he approached, Dr. Kluger got up, laying the book in the chair behind him. He held out a hand to Leo, and Leo accepted it firmly. They shook for a moment before Leo drew him close and patted his back with his other arm. "Thank you for releasing us."

"It was nothing. Rosaline--" he paused and took a deep breath. "Rosaline wrote the spell out very neatly in the book. I just had to cast it."

Leo looked straight into his solemn eyes. "We have heard about your loss and grieve for you."

"She lived the life she wanted to live and left the legacy of good she wanted to leave. I hope that we can all do the same." He paused for a moment and looked at Leo's face wryly. "I have lived long and seen many white lighters, but I wonder. Which of us is older?"

Leo didn't pause before answering. "Not all age is measured in years." He turned, dragging Dr. Kluger over to the table. "Come on, old man, lets join the party." They both moved back over to the table. Eli blew her horn again and someone threw confetti in the air and the normal hum of happy conversation around the table resumed.


End file.
